Bharti Airtel gains after further extending merger agreement with Axiata

Bharti Airtel rose 0.37% at Rs 355.80 at 09:42 IST on BSE after the company said that it has agreed to further extend an earlier entered agreement with Axiata Group Berhad until 26 September 2016 or such other date as the parties may agree.

The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 24 June 2016.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 28.63 points or 0.11% at 26,426.34

On BSE, so far 10,000 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 2.02 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 357.85 and a low of Rs 351.90 so far during the trading session. The stock had 52-week high of Rs 452.45 on 21 July 2015. The stock had hit 52-week low of Rs 282.30 on 29 January 2016.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 1998.70 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

It may be recalled that Bharti Airtel and Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) had on 28 January 2016 signed a definitive agreement to merge their respective telecommunication subsidiaries in Bangladesh; namely, Airtel Bangladesh (Airtel) and Robi Axiata (Robi). The agreement follows the 9 September 2015 announcement of both parties entering into an exclusive discussion to explore possibility of combining the business operations in Bangladesh.

Post-merger, the combined entity operating as Robi will serve approximately 4 crore customers. The joint strengths of Robi and Airtel will deliver the widest mobile network coverage across Bangladesh, strengthening its position in the mobile internet segment as well as consolidating its position as the second largest operator in the country, Airtel and Axiata said in a joint press release on 28 January 2016. The proposed transaction is subject to conditions precedent including receiving applicable approvals from relevant authorities and is expected to complete in the first half of 2016, the two companies had said. Upon completion, Axiata will hold 68.3% controlling stake in the combined entity, while Bharti will hold 25%. The remaining 6.7% will be held by the existing shareholder, NTT DOCOMO of Japan, they added.

Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit rose 2.8% to Rs 1290.30 crore on 8.4% growth in net sales to Rs 24959.60 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

Bharti Airtel ranks amongst the top three mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. The company has its operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa.

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