Airtel may raise over Rs 2,600 cr by selling Infratel shares

Country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel will tomorrow sell up to 72.5 million shares of its tower unit Bharti Infratel through which it could raise over Rs 2,600 crore.
"We wish to inform that Bharti Airtel Limited has decided to sell up to 55 million equity shares (with an upsize option of up to 17.5 million additional equity shares) of its subsidiary company Bharti Infratel Limited tomorrow i.E. February 26, 2015 through stock exchanges," the company said in a regulatory filing.
According to sources, the operator is raising the amount as it prepares itself for the upcoming spectrum auction, scheduled to start from March 4.

The sources said that Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS will be the merchant bankers to the issue. At the current market price, the share sale could fetch over Rs 2,600 crore.
Bharti Airtel has 74.85 per cent stake in Bharti Infratel as of December 2014.
The shares of Bharti Infratel closed at Rs 370.80 apiece, up 0.56 per cent on the BSE today.
Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 4,336 crore as the earnest money, which is the second highest after Reliance Jio Infocomm's Rs 4,500 crore.
The government expects to raise over Rs 1 lakh crore from the auction, which has airwaves in four bands on offer.