Bharti Telecom hikes stake in Airtel to 40.33%

Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL), the key promoter company of Bharti Airtel, has increased its stake in the Sunil Mittal-led telco to 40.33% by acquiring an additional 1.2% from another Airtel promoter group entity, Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL), through an off-market deal.

“…BTL has acquired 1.2% shares of Airtel from ICIL by way of an off-market transaction,” BTL said in a late evening NSE filing Wednesday.

Following the latest deal, ICIL’s stake in Airtel has dipped to 3.31% from around 4.51% previously.


BTL is the largest shareholder of the Sunil Mittal-led Airtel. The Mittal family and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) own 50.56% and 49.44% respectively in BTL respectively.

At Airtel’s current market-capitalisation of over Rs 9,10,222.14 crore, a 1.2% stake is valued at roughly Rs 10,924 crore. At press time, Airtel did not comment on the deal value.

Airtel shares closed 1.26% higher at Rs 1598.75 on Wednesday on the BSE.
In recent years, BTL has been increasing its stake in Airtel while SingTel’s effective holding in the telco has declined to around 29%.

The latest development, comes on the heels of BTL raising around Rs 11,150 crore through a new issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs). Barclays and Standard Chartered Bank were reportedly appointed as arrangers for the issuance.