Bharti Airtel up 3% on Amazon interest buzz, pares gain post clarification

Shares of Bharti Airtel gained as much as 2.93 per cent to Rs 590 on the BSE on Friday after media reports said that Amazon was looking to buy a stake worth $2 billion in the telecom company.

The Reuters report said that Amazon was in early-stage talks to buy stake worth $2 billion, which would mean a rough 5 per cent stake based on the current market value of Bharti.

The talks between Bharti and Amazon are at an early stage and the deal terms could change, or an agreement may not be reached, the report said quoting unnamed sources. If talks to buy a stake fail, the companies could also look at a commercial transaction that could give Bharti's customers cheap access to Amazon products, the report said.

However, the stock climbed off the opening highs after Bharti Airtel issued a clarification to the exchanges saying that "no such proposal is currently under consideration".

In an exchange filing, Bharti Airtel said, "the Company routinely works with all digital and OTT players and has deep engagement with them to bring their products, content and services for our wide customer base. Beyond that, there is, at this stage, no such proposal in consideration."

"Such speculative reporting while moving the stock price leads to unwarranted consequences and can result in reputational impact." the filing said. READ THE EXCHANGE FILING HERE

At 9:52 AM, the stock was up 0.34 per cent at Rs 575.10 on the BSE as compared to the Sensex's 0.62 per cent gain. Around 1.6 crore shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE combined so far. The stock was trading close to its all-time high level of Rs 611.70, hit on May 20, 2020 on the BSE.