Bharti Airtel surges 7%; Tata Tele hits upper circuit on sale of loss-making biz

NEW DELHI: Shares of Bharti Airtel surged over 7 per cent on Friday, while those of Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML) got locked at upper circuit limit of 10 per cent after the two companies reached an understanding to merge consumer mobile businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and TTML into Bharti Airtel.

As part of the agreement, Bharti Airtel will absorb Tata CMB’s operations across the country in nineteen circles (17 under TTSL and 2 under TTML).

The proposed merger will include transfer of all the customers and assets of Tata CMB to Bharti Airtel, further augmenting Bharti Airtel’s overall customer base and network. It will also enable Bharti Airtel to further bolster its strong spectrum foot-print with the addition of 178.5 MHz spectrum (of which 71.3 MHz is liberalised) in the 850, 1800 & 2100 MHz bands, the company said in a BSE filing.

Following the announcement, shares of Bharti Airtel stock rose 7.89 per cent to end the day at Rs 431.60 on BSE. Shares of TTML froze at 10 per cent upper circuit limit at Rs 4.86.

Tata is also in initial stages of exploring combination of its Enterprise Business with Tata Communications and its Retail Fixed Line and Broadband business with Tata Sky, TTML said in a release. Any such transaction will be subject to respective boards and other requisite approvals, the release said.