SingTel raises stake in Bharti Airtel to 32.25%

Singapore-based SingTel has increased its stake in one of India's largest telecom companies Bharti Airtel to 32.25 per cent, with the purchase of shares worth Rs 93 crore.

The freshly acquired shares account for about 0.1 percentage point stake in Bharti Airtel, which is jointly promoted by Singtel and group companies of industrialist Sunil Mittal’s family.

SingTel, through its subsidiary Viridian Ltd, has bought 2.83 million shares of Bharti Airtel through an open market purchase for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 93.4 crore ( S$26 million ), SingTel said in a stock filing.

At the end of December, SingTel owned 15.72 per cent in Bharti Airtel through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Pastel (15.57 per cent) and Viridian Ltd (0.15 per cent), while the rest was held indirectly by the parent company.

“The purchase consideration was determined by the prevailing market price of Airtel on the relevant stock exchange,” it said. All the promoters together held nearly 68.2 per cent stake in Bharti airtel, including 45.48 per cent by Mittal group firm Bharti Telecom as on December 31, 2010.

Among other shareholders, LIC has little over 5 per cent.

In January this year, Viridian had purchased 40.75 lakh shares of Bharti airtel via open market for Rs 136 crore taking its effective shareholding in airtel to 32.15 per cent. In 2009, SingTel had purchased an additional 73 lakh shares in Bharti Telecom, which is the promoter company of Bharti airtel, thereby increasing SingTel's effective interest to 31.95 per cent.

Bharti airtel shares were trading at Rs 362.50 a piece at 1300 hours on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 0.70 per cent from its previous close. Telecom giant Bharti airtel, in its third quarter earnings, had posted a 40.62 per cent dip in net income to Rs 1,303.3 crore. This was primarily on account of increase in spectrum charges and one-time costs related to its brand relaunch in Africa.