Bharti Airtel to acquire remaining 30% stake in Warid Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India's largest private telecom operator, today said it will acquire 30 per cent stake in Bangladesh's Warid Telecom to make it a wholly- owned subsidiary of the firm.

In January 2010, Bharti had acquired a 70 per cent stake in the Bangladesh arm of Warid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Group.

In a filing to the BSE, Bharti said: "Bharti Airtel Holdings (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Warid Group have reached an agreement, wherein, Bharti will acquire 30 per cent equity stake of Warid in Airtel Bangladesh Ltd."

With this, Bharti will own 100 per cent of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. Bharti had acquired 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh in January 2010, it added.

In a consecutive quarterly decline in net profits for 13th time, Airtel's net profit almost halved to Rs 508.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 from Rs 1,005.9 core in the year-ago period.

The consolidated income of the telecom major increased by 9.18 per cent at Rs 20,460.4 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 18,738.8 crore it registered in corresponding period of FY12.