Bharti Tele plans $850m expansion

Bharti Tele-Ventures has drawn a capital expenditure plan of $ 850-900 million for 2005-06. The company expects to use about two-thirds of the plan expenditure on business related to mobile services and the remaining on broadband, fixed line and related activities.

Akhil Gupta, joint managing director said, "The company will largely fund its requirements through internal accruals. However, if needed we will raise debt from the market. The debt will also be used to refinance our earlier loans."

Brushing aside questions on the company's plan to raise equity, Gupta claimed, "there is no need to raise equity. If we need money, we can always raise funds from the market."

Bharti Tele-ventures already enjoys a debt-equity ratio of 0.52 . The company's cash profit for the nine months ended December 2004 stood at Rs 750 crore.

Gupta pointed out that the company has raised $ 350 million from export credit agencies.

"We still have that money un-utilised and which attracts an interest of 4.4 per cent," he added.

Gupta was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of its service, Airtel Portfolio Manager in association with Bombay Stock Exchange. Answering a query on the company's sponsored ADR issue, Gupta claimed that the company will take a fresh view and "this will come up for discussion at the board meeting on April 27 or April 28. "

The company will examine how many shareholders are willing for the sponsored ADR". Warburg Pincus LLB's stake will also be discussed at the meeting. Warburg Pincus holds 5.8 per cent equity in Bharti Tele-Ventures.

Gupta however declined to comment on the size and time frame of the ADR issue while adding that, "there cannot be a time frame as this is a sponsored ADR." Existing shareholders will be able to offer domestic shares for conversion into ADR.

Meanwhile, Bharti Tele-Ventures in association with Bombay Stock Exchange launched the country's first stock and portfolio tracker on the mobile under Airtel Portfolio Manager.

Gupta said, "initially this is just a information platform. Eventually the plans are to make it a trading platform depending upon the needs of the customers." The service offers the customer live stock quotes of the companies and will also help analyse the status of his/her portfolio.

The customer can get quotes of more than 6,900 stocks listed on the BSE.