Bharti Airtel moves higher on pact to acquire Tikona's 4G biz

Bharti Airtel was up 1.57% to Rs 343.70 at 9:22 IST on BSE after the company said it has entered into pact with Tikona Digital Networks to acquire Tikona's 4G business.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 March 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 43.85 points or 0.15% at 29,376.01.

On the BSE, 60,000 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 17.89 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 348 and a low of Rs 341.15 so far during the day.

The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 400.65 on 23 February 2017 and a 52-week low of Rs 283.95 on 9 November 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 23 March 2017, sliding 7.55% compared with the Sensex's 1.52% rise. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market over the past one quarter, gaining 14.52% as against the Sensex's 12.64% rise.

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

Bharti Airtel announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Tikona Digital Networks (Tikona) to acquire Tikona's 4G business including broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum and 350 sites, in five telecom circles for about Rs 1600 crore. The acquisition will be funded in the way of cash and debt.

The indicative time period for the completion of the acquisition is up to 60 days. Airtel plans to roll-out high speed 4G services on the newly acquired spectrum in the five circles immediately after the closure of the transaction.

Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit fell 54.5% to Rs 503.70 crore on 3% decline in net sales to Rs 23335.70 crore in Q3 December 2016 over Q3 December 2015.

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries across Asia and Africa.

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