Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL), the holding company jointly owned by Sunil Mittal and Singtel, plans to raise its stake in Bharti AirtelBSE -0.68 % to over 50 per cent through open market purchases, shelving its earlier proposal of buying out the 6.65 per cent holding of Mittal family-owned investment firm. While the earlier plan would have resulted in the rise in Singtel’s economic interest and fall in the Mittal family’s economic interest, the new plan will result in an increase in the effective shareholding of both the company’s largest shareholders. BTL initially intended to acquire the stake from Indian Continental Investment Ltd (ICIL) that owns 6.65 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel. “We would like to deny that ICIL is selling its stake,” a Bharti spokesperson told ET. BTL, 51 per cent owned by the Mittal family, 40 per cent by Singtel, 7 per cent by Temasek and the rest by others, will fund the stake buy in Airtel through the proceeds of a Rs 2,503-crore rights issue, among other sources. The Mittal family and Singtel will subscribe to the rights issue to maintain their proportional ownership in BTL. Singtel had recently said in a notice that it would infuse Rs 996 crore into BTL as part of the rights issue.
Source: Economic TimesBharti Telecom plans to raise stake in Bharti Airtel to over 50%.
Industry: Telecom 2016-02-26
