Bharti Airtel surges over 10 per cent post deal with Telenor

NEW DELHI: Shares of Bharti Airtel surged as much as 11 per cent in early trade on Thursday and hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 400.65 after the company announced that it has entered into a definite agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte to acquire Telenor (India) Communications Private Ltd.

The deal will enable Airtel to further bolster spectrum foot-print in seven circles, with addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz band. Airtel will acquire Telenor India’s running operations in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.
These circles represent a high population concentration and therefore offer a high potential for growth.

The scrip was trading 8.85 per cent up at Rs 393.10 around 9.25 am. Shares of the company opened at Rs 371.80 and touched a high and low of Rs 400.65 and Rs 369.05, respectively, in trade so far. Benchmark BSE Telecom index was trading higher by 5.54 per cent at Rs 1,354.66 apiece around the same time.

The telecom major on Wednesday also announced it has acquired a “strategic equity stake” in financial technology company Seynse Technologies for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was carried out through Airtel's subsidiary Bharti Airtel Services, the company said in a statement.

Other telecom major Idea Cellular was trading 6.49 per cent in early deals. Reliance Communication was up nearly 4 per cent.

On Wednesday, RIL stock zoomed 11 per cent to nearly 9-year high, adding Rs 38,761 crore to its market valuation, after the company's telecom arm Jio said it will begin charging for data services from April. Shares of RIL were trading 0.52 per cent up at Rs 1,213.95.