Bharti Infratel slips 1.5% as merger with Indus Towers gets delayed

Shares of Bharti Enterprises companies, Bharti Infratel and Bharti Airtel, slipped up to over 1.5 per cent in the intra-day deals on Thursday. Investor sentiment soured after Bharti Infratel said it has extended the deadline for merger with mobile tower company Indus Towers by two more months to February 24, as it has not received the necessary government approvals so far.

"The Board of Directors has further extended the long stop date till February 24, 2020, subject to agreement on closing adjustments and other conditions precedent for closing, with each party retaining the right to terminate and withdraw the scheme," Bharti Infratel said in a BSE filing.

It also cautioned that "there can be no assurance that the merger can be completed within the extended time-frame" and added that the completion of merger is contingent upon receipt of requisite regulatory approvals and fulfilment of other conditions precedent. READ MORE

In October this year, Bharti Infratel had extended the deadline for merger by two months to December 24 as regulatory uncertainty loomed over the deal. As on September 30, 2019, Bharti Infratel and Vodafone India hold 42 per cent stake each in Indus. Vodafone Idea holds 11.15 per cent stake in the mobile tower firm.

At 11:46 am, Bharti Infratel was trading nearly a per cent lower at Rs 253 apiece on the BSE. The stock hit a low of 251.60, down 1.44 per cent during the session. Bharti Airtel was trading 1.53 per cent lower at Rs 450. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading around 100 points or 0.24 per cent lower at 41,362 levels.

As regards Bharti Airtel, share price also reacted after the company said Airtel Africa intends to raise about $37.5 million through a public issue of its local business, Airtel Malawi. The price for the IPO has been set at Malawian Kwacha (MK) 12.69 ($0.021) per ordinary share. The IPO is expected to comprise 165,00,00,000 shares, representing 15 per cent of the issued share capital.