India's leading telecom services company, Bharti Airtel today announced a new corporate structure under which group firm, Airtel Digital Ltd will merge into the listed entity, Bharti Airtel.
With this, Bharti Airtel will now house all the digital assets including Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments platform, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services.
In a statement, the company said its digital ambition is closely intertwined with the spine that connectivity provides across the country. It is therefore intended to house all the telecom businesses in a newly created entity, Airtel Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited.
“The new structure sets the exciting future course for Bharti Airtel and provides focus on the four distinct businesses – Digital, India, International and Infrastructure, each, in a razor-sharp way. We believe this will provide agility, expertise and operational rigour to serve our customers brilliantly while providing flexibility to unlock value for our shareholders. This structure will serve us well over the coming years and is a win-win for all stakeholders,” Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel, said.
Bharti Telemedia, the 100 per cent arm operating DTH (direct to home) TV services will sit alongside Airtel Limited for now. It is intended to eventually merge the DTH business into Airtel Limited to move towards the NDCP vision of converged services to customers.
The company has moved the government to seek clarity on licensing policy given that carriage i.e. telecom and DTH is currently being regulated and managed under two separate ministries of Communications and I&B respectively.
Airtel Payments Bank will remain a separate entity under Bharti Airtel and work closely with the growing customer base to play a pivotal role in realising the digital opportunity that payments and financial services provides.
All of the company’s infrastructure businesses such as Nxtra and Indus Towers will continue to remain in separate entities as they are currently. The status of international subsidiaries and affiliates will remain the same.
The board today approved the scheme enabling the company to file for all statutory approvals to give effect to the proposed rearrangement.
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