Bharti Telecom, the promoter and holding company of Bharti AirtelBSE -0.58 %, will buy another 4.62% stake in India’s largest telecom operator from a group company in a deal that could be worth up to Rs 9,600 crore.
In a filing with the National Stock Exchange, the promoter firm said it would acquire 184,710,183 shares in Airtel from Indian Continent Investment Ltd. The deal value would not be more than 25% of the stock’s 60-day weighted average price of Rs 417.35, the filing said, suggesting the acquisition cost between Rs 7,700 crore and Rs 9,600 crore. On Monday, Airtel stock closed 1.6% higher at Rs 492.90 on the NSE.
The effective date of acquisition will be November 3 or after that. After the share transfer, Bharti Telecom will own 50.1% of Airtel, compared with 45.48% earlier. Indian Continent Investment’s stake will reduce to 2.03% from 6.65%.
The Mittal family is the promoter of Bharti Telecom. The Mittals own 51% of Bharti Telecom and an effective 30% in Airtel. A person familiar with the matter said that as per the filing, there won’t be any cash outgo for the Bharti Group for this transaction and is being done purely for accounting and financial reporting purposes.
