KOLKATA:
Bharti Airtel has decided to sell 32% in
Bharti Infratel, which will reduce its stake in the listed tower unit to 18.33% from 50.33% even as the Sunil Mittal-led telco prepares to raise funds to bolster its 4G networks and counter
Reliance Jio more effectively.
Separately, the Bharti Airtel board Thursday appointed a panel to explore various other fund raising options and named Badal Bagri as the company’s new CFO, who will replace global CFO
Nilanjan Roy, who has resigned, and is joining
Infosys.
At Bharti Infratel’s closing stock price of Rs 261 on BSE Thursday, the parent company can generate nearly Rs 15,450 crore by selling a 32% stake in its tower arm. Infratel shares own fell over 1% on the exchange.
The Airtel board has “approved the sale/transfer of upto 591.87 million equity shares (32%) of Bharti Infratel, to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd, to explore a potential monetisation of its Infratel stake, subject to the approval of shareholders,” India’s second-largest telco said in a regulatory filing on BSE.
Bharti Airtel shares fell nearly 2% to close at Rs 316.15 on BSE.
Over the past 21-odd months, Bharti Airtel has been raising funds by progressively reducing its stake in its listed tower unit to cut debt and free up cash to gird up for competition with
Jio in the fiercely competitive 4G turf.
It has already raised well over Rs 12,000 crore through multiple stake dilutions. But in March this year, the company said it might sell a much larger stake in its tower arm to fund its 4G expansion plans.
In a separate exchange filing, Airtel said its board had formed and authorised “a special committee of directors to comprehensively explore/evaluate various fund raising options to strengthen the company’s capital structure and balance sheet”.