 "Bharti Airtel shares slip 3% amid large trades; check all details here")
Bharti Airtel shares declined 2.8 per cent on the BSE, hitting an intra-day low of ₹2,100 apiece, amid significant block trades. At 9:17 AM, 0.32 million shares had changed hands on the BSE, while 0.02 million shares were traded on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Around the same time, Bharti Airtel’s share price was trading 2.79 per cent lower at ₹2,100.55. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was down 0.10 per cent at 84,503.44.
The company’s market capitalisation stood at ₹11,97,755.73 crore. The stock’s 52-week high is ₹2,174.7, and its 52-week low is ₹1,537.45.
Bharti Airtel block deal details
The selling pressure on the counter stemmed from a block deal involving 34.4 million shares, representing 0.6 per cent of equity, traded in multiple block deals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
As per a term sheet reviewed by Business Standard, Indian Continent Investment (ICIL), a promoter entity, was expected to offload 34.3 million shares at ₹2,096.7 per share. This price represented a 3 per cent discount to Tuesday’s closing price of ₹2,160.75.
This transaction would reduce ICIL’s stake in Airtel to 0.92 per cent from its existing 1.48 per cent. Currently, the promoters collectively hold a 50.27 per cent stake in Airtel, with Singapore’s Singtel owning 27.5 per cent.
This marks the third instance of ICIL selling a stake in Airtel within the past year. The previous such transaction occurred in August, when the promoter offloaded a 0.98 per cent stake for ₹11,227 crore ($1.3 billion), making it one of the largest block deals in the domestic market.
In February, ICIL had sold an 0.84 per cent stake (51 million shares) for ₹8,485 crore ($976 million). Notably, a quarter of these shares were acquired by another group firm, Bharti Telecom, which holds 40.47 per cent of Airtel.
Following these stake sales, the total promoter holding in Bharti Airtel has decreased to 50.27 per cent, down from 53.11 per cent at the beginning of the year.
These stake adjustments come at a time when Airtel’s founder is reportedly seeking to acquire a 49 per cent stake in the Indian entity of Chinese consumer appliances major Haier. The founder, along with global private equity firm Warburg Pincus, has been in discussions with Haier regarding the stake purchase, with negotiations ongoing around the valuation sought by the Chinese company.