Bharti Airtel shares up 2% on Augere acquisition

Shares of Bharti Airtel today settled for the day with gains of over 2 per cent as the company acquired wireless broadband firm Augere's India operations.
During the day, the stock surged 3.28 per cent to touch an intra-day high of Rs 350.90. The company however lost some initial gains and was quoted at Rs 347.35, higher 2.24 per cent at the end of today's trading session.
Following the development, the market capitalisation of the company improved by Rs 3,037 crore to Rs 1,38,849.69 crore.
Bharti Airtel yesterday acquired wireless broadband firm Augere's India operations. The company did not disclose the deal value.

Market participants said that the surge in the counter was largely due to the Augere Wireless acquisition, which would ramp up the company's 4G services.
With this acquisition, Airtel's 4G services will now be available in over 300 cities and towns.

Augere Wireless holds 20 MHz of spectrum in 2300 MHz band used for 4G services in the telecom circle of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (MPCG).
Augere, established in September 2007, launched broadband services under the Qubee brand in Pakistan in July 2009. This was closely followed by launch in Bangladesh in October 2009.
As per Augere's website, the company has licenses to operate broadband wireless networks in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in India but did not launch services, although it has tested a pilot wireless network based on LTE technology in Madhya Pradesh.