Mittal’s entity sells $976 million Airtel stake; Bharti Telecom boosts holding: Report
Mumbai: A company controlled by billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal has sold shares worth $976 million in India’s second-largest wireless carrier, as the first-generation entrepreneur looks to raise funds for new business ventures, Bloomberg reported.
Indian Continental Investment Ltd., a founder entity of Bharti Airtel Ltd., divested a 0.84% stake—equivalent to 51 million shares—for Rs 8,485 crore ($976 million), according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.
Nearly a quarter of these shares were acquired by another group company, Bharti Telecom Ltd.
The identities of other investors were not disclosed, but the sale was executed at Rs 1,660.46 per share, a slight discount to Monday’s closing price of Rs 1,675.6.
The filing noted that shares were “allocated only to key marquee long-only names, both global and domestic.”
The transaction comes as Mittal expands his global footprint, with investments in Africa and the UK-based satellite company OneWeb, which merged with Eutelsat in 2023.
Last year, a unit of the privately held Bharti Enterprises Ltd. acquired a 24.5% stake in BT Group Plc.
Following the latest sale, Bharti Telecom now owns a 40.47% stake in Airtel, reinforcing its “previously stated intent of strengthening its position as the principal vehicle to hold controlling stake in Airtel,” the company stated in the filing.
Bharti Telecom had also purchased around 1.2% of Airtel shares from Indian Continental Investment in November, further consolidating its stake in the telecom giant, which competes with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
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