Bharti plans prepaying up to $900 mn of debt

Sitting on a good amount of cash flows, Bharti Airtel today said it will consider prepaying up to $900 million of the debt it raised while acquiring African operations of Zain telecom in June this year.

The company is looking at prepaying a part of the debt. It would be in the range of $800-900 million, Bharti Group chief financial officer Manik Jhangiani said.

The total cost of the Bharti-Zain deal that was signed in June was at $10.7 billion. This included an equity value of $9 billion and $1.7 billion of consolidated debt obligations.

Bharti had borrowed $7.5 billion from different banks to finance the acquisition of Zain.

According to Manik, flexibility of prepayments has always been part of the loan agreement and Bharti has the option of prepaying based on its cash flow.

The company had seen significant free cash flows over the past few quarters.

Bharti?s results for the three months ended September 30 show the telco?s cash balance on the books at Rs 1,737 crore.

Originally, 11 banks led by Standard Chartered Plc, had underwritten the $7.5 billion loan.

Besides, the company could also look at an initial public offer for its tower unit, although there is no definite plan, Jhangiani said.

Bharti Infratel is one of the tower units of Bharti Airtel. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti.