Bharti Airtel raises Rs 1,925 cr from stake sale in tower unit

Divests 55 mn shares, firm's equity holding in Bharti Infratel down to 71.9% from 74.85%

The country’s largest telecom company, Bharti Airtel has raised Rs 1,925 crore ($310 million) by selling nearly three per cent stake in its tower unit, Bharti Infratel.

After divesting 55 million shares, the company’s equity holding in Bharti Infratel has come down to 71.9 per cent from 74.85 per cent at the end of December 2014.The proceeds will be primarily used to reduce debt, the company said in a statement.

“An overall demand of $440 million (1.42 times of base deal size) was seen across the US, Europe and Asia. The allocation was at Rs 350 per share — a discount of 3.7 per cent to last 30 day average closing price,” it said. The allocation was done to global tower company investors, fund managers and long-only (long-term) funds, including many repeat investors. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS were brokers to the transaction.

It is learnt the company has raised the money to be used in the coming spectrum auction starting March 4. Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 4,336 crore as the earnest money, which is the second highest after Reliance Jio Infocomm at Rs 4,500 crore.