Airtel gears up for sponsored ADR issue

SingTel will not participate in Bharti Tele-Ventures proposed sponsored ADR issue, said Rajan Bharti Mittal joint managing director, Bharti Tele-Ventures.

Speaking on the sidelines of the company's mobile technology experience centre, Mittal said that SingTel was a strategic investor and would not participate in the secondary issue and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) would participate. According to the shareholders' pattern filed with the stock exchanges, as on September 30, FIIs held 11.93 per cent in the company.

However, Mittal clarified, while the company had received all necessary approvals, no timeframe had been fixed for the issue. Mittal explained, partners would have to take a call as it was a secondary issue.

Bharti Tele-Ventures received shareholders' approval at the company's last annual general meeting for a sponsored ADR upto 200 million equity shares.

Mittal also said that most of the investments would be made through internal accruals and the company would not have to raise resources from the market.

Airtel would be spreading out to Bihar and Orissa by this December with an investment of Rs 200 crore, said Mittal.

The rollout plan as chalked out by the company entailed launch in Assam and north eastern states by March, while surveys were being conducted in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, part of the West Bengal circle. Bharti recently launched services in West Bengal and has covered around 140 towns.

Mittal said, Bharti would cover 140 towns in Orissa and 100 towns in Bihar. The company would be investing Rs 75-100 crore in each of these circles. The investment was part of the Rs 2,300 crore investment announced by the company for the year.

Deepak Gulati, chief executive officer Bharti Cellular (eastern region) said that offerings in Bihar and Orissa would be localised according to the requirements of customers. The company invested around Rs 600 crore in the Kolkata circle, till date and another Rs 25 crore investment would be made by the end of the financial year.