Bharti Infratel rallies 11% after completing merger with Indus Towers

NEW DELHI: Shares of Bharti Infratel advanced 11 per cent in Friday’s intraday trade after the company said its proposed merger with Indus Towers to create a mega tower company has been completed.

The scrip traded 11.40 per cent higher at Rs 206.90 at around 12.22 pm (IST), while the benchmark BSE Sensex traded 0.03 per cent down at 43,586 at around the same time.

The debt-ridden Vodafone Idea has received about Rs 3,760 crore cash for its 11.15 per cent holding in Indus, according to a regulatory filing. Shares of Vodafone Idea were up 3.13 per cent at Rs 9.56.

As promoters of the new company, Vodafone Group will hold 28.12 per cent stake (in the merged entity) while the holding of Bharti Airtel Group will be about 36.7 per cent.

"...the Board has allotted 757,821,804 equity shares of Rs 10 each to the Vodafone group and 87,506,900 equity shares of Rs 10 each to PS Asia Holding Investments (Mauritius) Limited (Providence) aggregating to 28.12 per cent and 3.25 per cent respectively in the post-issue share capital of the company," Bharti Infratel said in a regulatory filing on Thursday evening.

It further said the merger of Indus and Infratel "has been completed", and added that Vodafone Idea has received a cash consideration of Rs 3,760.1 crore for its 11.15 per cent shareholding in Indus.