Airtel to invest Rs 1.17 lakh crore Capex in four years through subsidiaries

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has proposed a plan to invest Rs 1.17 lakh crore in Capex and related expenses over the next four years via its subsidiaries Bharti Hexacom, Indus Towers and Nxtra, The Economic Times reported.

Of the Rs 1.17 lakh crore, Rs 88,000 crore will be spent on Indus Towers (mobile tower company), Rs 15,000 crore will be spent on Nxtra (for data centre services), and Rs 14,000 crore on Bharti Hexacom (for transactions), as per a regulatory filing on February 5.

The AGM agenda shared in the filing states that 5G is likely to become a reality in India soon, in context of global developments and requirement of passive infrastructure has increased. Thus, “the company proposed transactions up to Rs 20,000 crore p.a. with Indus Towers for FY25-26”.

The telco will also hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on February 26 to seek approval from shareholders for its Rs 7,500 crore worth 1.28 percent stake issue to Google, it said.

Experts told ET that Google’s $1 billion funding in Airtel will help India’s second largest telco prepare for 5G auctions set to begin mid-2022 and subsequent network rollouts.

The filing came a week after the US tech giant announced the investment. The two companies aim to get more Indians online, deliver enterprise services and cooperate on India-specific 5G use cases, it added.