Bharti Tele To Seek Ipo Nod Next Week

Bharti Televentures will approach the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for getting a formal approval for its initial public offering in the coming week. The exact timing of the listing will only be decided after the company gets the nod from Sebi, according to company sources.

Meanwhile, ahead of the IPO, Bharti has decided to issue bonus shares to the company stakeholders.

Company sources said bonus would be issued in a 1:10 ratio i.e. for every one share the company would issue ten bonus shares. The face value of the company stood at Rs 1,670 crore while the book value was in excess of Rs 4,000 crore.

At present, the majority of the shares in Bharti Televentures is held by the Mittals who are also the promoters of the company. Singapore Telecom Telecom, Warburg Pincus and New York Life had recently infused close to $450 million in the company and their equity share in the company is estimated to be around 30 per cent.

The company has raised Rs 3,000 crore as equity and is raising another Rs 3,000 crore as debt to fund its plans for offering cellular, basic and long distance telephony.

After the IPO, where the company is expected to divest at least 10 per cent stake to the public, the promoters will continue to hold more than 50 per cent stake in the company according to sources.

Bharti Televentures had said that it was gearing up for public listing towards the end of the year to raise about $200 million.

However the exact timing of the IPO is not known as the company is reviewing the market situation post September 11 attack on the World trade Centre. The domestic listing comes in the wake of the company putting on hold its plans to tap overseas markets through American depositary receipts.

Bharti would be the first cellular company in India to raise funds through a domestic IPO. Going by the expectations it would also be one of the largest IPO in recent times.