Bharti Airtel promoter entity ICIL sells 3.43 cr shares for ₹7,189 cr

After the share sale, Bharti Airtel's scrip fell 3 per cent to Rs 2,097.50 apiece on the NSE while it dipped by 2.81 per cent to Rs 2,100 per share on the BSE

Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL), a Sunil Mittal entity, sold 0.56 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel on Wednesday. ICIL sold 34.3 million shares at ₹2,098 apiece to mop up ₹7,195 crore. Names of the buyers were not disclosed by the stock exchange. The share sale saw demand from marquee domestic and international long-only investors, the company said in a statement. 

 

“Both new and existing shareholders of Airtel participated, with the placements majorly allocated to long-only investors. This transaction is aligned with the publicly stated position that Bharti Telecom, a Bharti controlled group subsidiary and the promoter of Airtel, will continue to be the principal vehicle to hold controlling stake in Airtel,” it said.

 

Shares of Bharti Airtel fell 1.6 per cent to end at ₹2,127, valuing the company at ₹12.12 trillion. At the end of September 2025, the pro­moter holding in the telecom behemoth stood at 50.27 per cent, down from 53.14 per cent a year ago. Shares of Airtel have rallied 35 per cent in the past one year.

 

The transaction is pegged at around $806 million, or about ₹7,189.19 crore. ICIL owned a 1.48 per cent stake in Airtel at the end of the September quarter, stock exchange data showed. The promoter entities, including Bharti Telecom and Singtel’s affiliate Pastel Ltd, hold a 50.27 per cent stake in the telecom major.After the stake sale, ICIL’s holding in Bharti Airtel dropped to 0.92 per cent from 1.48 per cent. 

 

Earlier this month, Singtel said it had sold about 0.8 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for ₹10,353 crore, as it continues to proactively optimise its portfolio through asset recycling. In August this year, ICIL divested ne­arly one per cent stake in telecom carrier Bharti Airtel for ₹11,227 crore. In February, Bharti Airtel announced that ICIL had sold Airtel shares worth about ₹8,485.11 crore through a market transaction.