Bharti sells stake in Bharti Infratel for Rs 3,325 crore

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it had offloaded 83 million shares in subsidiary Bharti Infratel for Rs 3,325 crore through secondary share sale in the stock market.

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, will primarily use the proceeds from this sale to pare its debt, a company statement said.

Airtel's consolidated debt stood at Rs 91,480 crore as on September 2017.

Post the transaction, Bharti Airtel and its wholly owned subsidiaries together have an equity holding of 53.51 per cent in tower company Bharti Infratel, it added.

The sale was carried out by Airtel via its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nettle Infrastructure Investments.

Announcing the "successful divestment" of 83 million shares of subsidiary Bharti Infratel, the company said: "The sale was for a total consideration of over Rs 3,325 crore (USD 510 million) and was executed at a price of Rs 400.6 per share, representing a discount of 3.6 per cent to the previous day's closing price."

The allocation was done to global investors, fund managers and long-only funds, including many repeat investors, it said, adding that the deal was upsized by over 25 per cent.