Airtel sells 3.65% in Bharti Infratel to raise Rs. 2,750 Cr

Bharti Airtel has sold 3.65% in Bharti Infratel to raise Rs. 2,750 crore for reducing its debt.

Bharti Airtel via its wholly owned subsidiary, Nettle Infrastructure Investments has announced the successful divestment of 67.53 million shares of its subsidiary Bharti Infratel through a secondary share sale in the stock market.

The sale was for a total consideration of over Rs. 2,570 crore (over $400 million) and was executed at a price of Rs. 380.6 per share, representing a discount of 4% to the previous day’s closing price.

Bharti Airtel will primarily use the proceeds from this sale to reduce its debt. Following the closure of this transaction, Bharti Airtel and its wholly owned subsidiaries together have an equity holding of 58% in Bharti Infratel.

The allocation was done to global tower company investors, fund managers and long only funds, including many repeat investors.

UBS and J.P. Morgan were joint placement agents for the transaction.

Bharti Infratel is one of the India’s leading provider of tower and related infrastructure and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators. The company’s consolidated portfolio of over 90,000 telecom towers, which includes over 39,000 of its own towers and the balance from its 42% equity interest in Indus Towers, makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles.

The three leading wireless telecommunications service providers in India by revenue – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular – are the largest customers of Bharti Infratel.