Sunil Mittal to offload 0.8% stake in Bharti Airtel, eyes ₹9,300 crore

Proceeds likely to be channelled towards purchase of stake in Haier India

The family office of Sunil Mittal is set to sell a 0.8 per cent stake in Indian telecommunications major Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Friday to raise up to ₹9,300 crore ($1.06 billion) via block deals. The sale proceeds are likely to be channelled towards the purchase of a stake in Haier India, said people aware of the details.

 

According to the term sheet seen by Business Standard, Indian Continent Investment (ICIL), a promoter entity, will sell 50 million shares at a price of ₹1,862 per share — a 3.15 per cent discount from Thursday’s close of ₹1,924 per share.

 

 

The sale will see ICIL’s stake in Airtel drop to 1.67 per cent from the existing 2.47 per cent. The promoters currently own a 51.25 per cent stake in Airtel, while Singtel of Singapore owns a 28.3 per cent stake.

 

Jefferies and JP Morgan are bankers to the deal, according to the term sheet. The bankers and Airtel didn't respond to queries from Business Standard until the time of going to press.

 

This would be the second time ICIL sold a stake in Airtel in the past year, with the previous sale taking place in February this year. The promoter entity had sold a 0.84 per cent stake, or 51 million shares, for ₹8,485 crore ($976 million). A fourth of the shares were picked up by another group firm, Bharti Telecom, which holds 40.47 per cent of Airtel. 

 

The second instance of promoter entity stake sale comes at a time when the Airtel founder is seeking to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Chinese consumer appliances major Haier’s India entity. Mittal, along with global private equity giant Warburg Pincus, has been in talks with Haier for the stake purchase, with discussions ongoing around the valuation being sought by the Chinese company.

 

According to media reports last month, the proposed deal value is being pegged at ₹6,000 crore, down from an earlier valuation of $2 billion.

 

Last year, Bharti Enterprises acquired a 24.5 per cent stake in BT Group from Altice UK for roughly $4 billion in October 2024. The sale was made through its subsidiary Bharti Global, using Bharti Televentures UK to facilitate the purchase. Bharti raised $1.8 billion in debt from Barclays to help fund the acquisition. A portion of the stake, 9.99 per cent, was acquired through open market purchases. The remaining 14.51 per cent was to be acquired after regulatory approvals. The deal was approved by UK regulators in December 2024.