Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel has raised about Rs19.25bn (US$310m) from the sale of 55 million shares, equal to a 2.91% stake, in mobile tower unit Bharti Infratel.
The New Delhi-based telco said in a statement that overall demand for the…
Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel has raised about Rs19.25bn (US$310m) from the sale of 55 million shares, equal to a 2.91% stake, in mobile tower unit Bharti Infratel.
The New Delhi-based telco said in a statement that overall demand for the secondary share sale on the Bombay and national stock exchanges totalled US$440m – 1.42 times the base deal size – across the US, Europe and Asia.
Shares were allocated at Rs350 each, which represents a 3.7% discount on the average closing price over the past 30 days.
Buyers included global tower company investors, fund managers and long-only funds, and included many repeat investors, Airtel said.
The telco noted that proceeds will be used primarily to cut its debt pile, which amounted to nearly US$11bn at the end of 2014.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS were brokers on the transaction.
Airtel, which operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, now has a 71.9% stake in Infratel.
Infratel, which was listed for US$760m in late 2012, has a portfolio of 85,000 telecoms towers, 36,000 of which it owns directly. The remainder come from its 42% stake in Indus Towers. The company, which manages the towers for mobile operators, is looking to expand its footprint across Asia as more operators prepare to offload towers to focus on core operations.
Airtel last sold shares in Infratel in August, raising more than Rs21bn (US$350m) from the sale of a 4.5% stake.