Bharti Airtel acquires 1% additional stake in Indus Towers as Vodafone group offloads equity

Bharti Airtel buys additional stake in Indus Towers.

Bharti Airtel said on June 19 that it has acquired 1 percent additional equity stake in Indus Towers, shortly after it was reported that UK's Vodafone group has sold as much as 20 percent shareholding in the towers company.

Bharti Airtel said it has bought 2.695 crore shares in Indus Towers 'on-market'. Sunil Mittal-led telecom company had got the directors' approval for acquisition of upto 2.7 crore shares. Before this, Bharti Airtel held 47.95 percent equity stake in Indus Towers.

Earlier today, Vodafone group reportedly sold as many as 53.3 crore shares in Indus Towers for Rs 17,065 crore. Private equity firms I Squared Capital and Stonepeak were also among the interested buyers for Vodafone's stake in Indus Towers.

The sale is a move by Vodafone to streamline its financials. Vodafone Group had earlier announced in 2022 its intention to sell its then 28% stake, aiming to reduce its hefty $42.17 billion net debt. However, progress had been slow so far, with only a fraction of the stake sold.

Analysts at JPMorgan have noted that the sale could generate a substantial cash influx, estimated at $2.3 billion. This would facilitate quicker debt repayments to vendors, including Indus Towers, and might even enable a special dividend for the shareholders of the Indian tower company.

The block deal led to a 10 percent drop in Indus Towers' stock price to an intraday low of Rs 311.40 on the NSE, before paring losses and trading at Rs 331 in the afternoon.

Bharti Airtel share price fell, and was trading down 1 percent at Rs 1,414 on June 19.