Airtel's Akhil Gupta invests in Anil Ambani's commodity bourse

Another investor, Vijay Sharma, has also bought 5% stake

Bharti Airtel group veteran Akhil Gupta has become an investor in the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), part of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, buying a five per cent stake in the bourse for Rs 200 crore.

Gupta and another Delhi-based investor, Vijay Sharma of BN Enterprises, have bought five per cent each from state-run MMTC, ahead of a rights issue being launched by the exchange on Monday, sources said.

With the latest transfer, MMTC’s stake has come down from 26 per cent to 16 per cent in the bourse, where Reliance Group firm Reliance Exchangenext Ltd is anchor investor.

Addressing the shareholders of Reliance Capital on September 30, Chairman

Anil Ambani had said the company was at an advanced stage of relaunching ICEX and expected to grow the business in a significant manner with a target to attain leadership position within three years.

Through the proposed rights issue, ICEX is looking to raise Rs 50 crore and the much needed capital would be infused in the exchange to re-start its operations. The rights issue would be completed by the first week of February.

Sources said Gupta can play an active role in working with Reliance Capital team led by Sanjit Prasad, formerly with leading commodity bourse Multi Commodity Exchange, to get ICEX operational.

Gupta had earlier made an investment in  International Asset Reconstruction with US-based private equity major KKR.

Set up by Tata Capital and HDFC Bank, IARC is into acquisition of non-performing loans from banks, to unlock value from the underlying assets.

Gupta, a chartered accountant, is vice-chairman of Bharti Enterprises and executive chairman of Bharti Infratel, both part of the

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group. He has been  associated with various strategic, financial, mergers and acquisitions and business performance issues and transformational initiatives for the Bharti group.

Gupta has played a  role in Bharti’s phenomenal growth and been closely involved from the  beginning in the group’s telecom business. And led the formation of its various partnerships with leading international companies and investors.

He was also instrumental in separation of the tower infrastructure of Bharti Airtel and forming Indus Towers, a joint venture with Vodafone and Idea, which has become the largest tower company in the world.