Singtel arm sells 1.59% stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 7,261 crore

Pastel Ltd, an entity of Singtel, on Thursday divested 1.59 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 7,261 crore through an open market transaction.

The stake has been picked by Bharti Airtel's promoter Bharti Telecom Ltd, as per block deal data with the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

According to the data, Pastel offloaded 9,40,00,000 shares, amounting to 1.59 per cent stake in the company.

The shares were disposed of at an average price of Rs 772.5 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 7,261.50 crore.

Pastel Ltd is a unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel).

Post this transaction, Pastel's shareholding in Bharti Airtel will decrease to 10.62 per cent from 12.21 per cent.

At the end of the June quarter, Pastel held 13.84 per cent stake in the firm, shareholding data with the bourse showed.

Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal's family and Singtel are co-investors in Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL).

In early September, Singtel entities had jointly sold a 1.76 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for about Rs 7,128 crore, while its co-promoter Bharti Telecom Ltd bought 1.63 per cent stake from Pastel for Rs 6,602 crore.

Last month, Singtel announced that its affiliates have entered into an agreement to transfer approximately 3.33 per cent stake to BTL for an aggregate amount of approximately 2.25 billion Singapore dollars (SGD), leaving direct shareholding of Singtel and Bharti in Airtel at around 10 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

Bharti Telecom at present holds 35.85 per cent stake in the country's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel.

Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 0.56 per cent higher at Rs 784.60 on NSE.