Sri Lanka’s telecom market leader Dialog Axiata has acquired 100% in Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary in the island nation following the completion of an all-stock deal.
“…. Bharti Airtel, Dialog Axiata PLC and Axiata Group, Berhad have successfully completed on June 26, 2024, the share swap transaction of Bharti Airtel Lanka Pvt Ltd (Airtel Lanka) with Dialog. Upon completion of the transaction, Dialog holds 100% shareholding of Airtel Lanka and Bharti Airtel holds 10.355% shareholding of Dialog,” the Sunil Mittal-led telco said in filings to the BSE and NSE on Thursday.
Back in April, Bharti Airtel had received clearance from Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to merge Air Lanka with Dialog Axiata through an all-stock deal.
Under a definitive pact then signed between Dialog Axiata, Axiata Group Berhad and Bharti Airtel, Dialog was to acquire 100% of the issued shares in Airtel Lanka. For this, Dialog, in turn, would issue ordinary voting shares totalling 10.355% of the total issued shares to Airtel by way of a share swap, the companies had announced back in April. The deal has now concluded.
Airtel shares closed 1.63% higher at Rs 1482.30 on the BSE Thursday.
Bharti Airtel and Dialog Axiata had entered into a binding agreement in May 2023 for merging their operations in Sri Lanka.
Dialog is Sri Lanka’s largest telco with over 17 million subscribers. Airtel Lanka has about 5 million subscribers.
Bharti Airtel managing director Gopal Vittal had previously said that merging Airtel Lanka with Dialog would enable Airtel customers in the island nation to continue getting cutting-edge services on a seamless network.
