Singtel Entities Offload 1.76 Per Cent Stake In Bharti Airtel For Rs 7,128 Crore: Report

Bharti Airtel promoter Bharti Telecom Ltd has acquired a 1.63 per cent stake from Singtel entity Pastel Ltd for Rs 6,602 crore via an open market deal

Singtel entities have jointly offloaded a 1.76 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for about Rs 7,128 crore, quoting sources, the PTI said on Thursday. According to the report, Bharti Airtel promoter Bharti Telecom Ltd has acquired a 1.63 per cent stake from Singtel entity Pastel Ltd for Rs 6,602 crore via an open market deal.

Bharti Telecom bought 9,62,34,427 shares, amounting to a 1.63 per cent stake in the telecom firm, according to the bulk deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The shares were acquired at an average price of Rs 686 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 6,601.68 crore.

The shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd were sold by Pastel Ltd, a unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel).

According to the sources, Viridian also offloaded about 1 crore shares. "Singtel entities have jointly offloaded a total of 1.76 per cent shares on Wednesday. Bharti Telecom has acquired 96 million shares while public has acquired around 7 million shares offloaded by Singtel group firms.

Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal's family and Singtel are co-investors in Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL).

"Post this transaction, public shareholding in Bharti Airtel will increase to 44.87 per cent from 44.74 per cent," a source privy to the development told PTI. An email query sent to Bharti Airtel by PTI did not elicit any reply.

At the end of the June quarter, Bharti Telecom Ltd owned a 35.85 per cent stake in the company, the shareholding pattern showed with the exchange.

Last week, Singtel announced that its affiliates have entered into an agreement to transfer about 3.33 per cent shares to BTL for an aggregate amount of nearly 2.25 billion Singapore dollars (SGD), leaving direct shareholding of Singtel and Bharti in Airtel at around 10 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

Currently, Singtel holds a 50.56 per cent stake in Bharti Telecom and the Mittal family holds 49.44 per cent. Bharti Telecom now holds a 35.85 per cent stake in the country's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel.

Shares of Bharti Airtel were trading 2.36 per cent higher at Rs 770.85 apiece on the BSE on Thursday.