Shares of Bharti Airtel climbed nearly 2 per cent on Friday after the telco said it is allotting 7.11 crore shares to US tech major Google on a preferential basis.
As of 1.30 pm, the stock of Airtel was trading at Rs 653.90, up 1.85 per cent on the BSE. The allotment of shares happened at a premium of 14 per cent to the last closing price.
In a regulatory filing, Bharti Airtel said, “We wish to inform you that the 'Special Committee of Directors for Preferential Allotment' of the company has…approved the allotment of 7,11,76,839 equity shares of the face value of Rs 5 each fully paid up, on preferential basis to Google International LLC at an issue price of Rs 734 per equity share.”
Bharti Airtel on Thursday approved the preferential allotment of 7.11 crore shares to Google at an issue price of Rs 734 per share.
Google will hold 1.2 per cent of the total post-issue equity shares of the company’s shares.
"The paid-up equity share capital of the company will stand increased to Rs 28,306,517,827.50 divided into 5,563,231,650 fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 5 each and 392,287,662 partly- paid-up equity shares of Rs 5 each,” it further added.
In January 2022, Airtel had announced that Google will invest $700 million for a stake of 1.28 per cent in the company.
Additionally, Google will set aside $300 million for potential investment in areas like smart phone access, networks, and Cloud. The investment will help Airtel to offer a wide range of affordable devices to consumers.
Google is the acquisition through a holding company Google Investments LLP which is a subsidiary of Alphabet.
Google is shelling out Rs 5,224 crore for the stake. It also owns 7.73 percent stake in Jio Platforms, a direct rival of Bharti Airtel.