Bharti Airtel shares may see a block deal soon as promoter entity Pastel Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel, is likely to sell 0.8% stake for Rs 10,300 crore, sources told CNBC-TV18 on November 6.
Floor price for the deal has been fixed at Rs 2,030 per share, which implies a 3.5% discount to current market price.
Pastel Ltd will see 5.1% crore shares and JPMorgan is the broker for the block deal, reported CNBC-Awaaz.
On November 6, Bharti Airtel shares on NSE closed 0.9% lower at Rs 2,095 apiece.
In May, Singtel said it has sold about 1.2% of its direct stake in Bharti Airtel for S$2 billion (roughly $1.5 billion) in sync with its active capital management approach to optimise its asset portfolio and drive shareholder returns sustainably.
The transaction was executed via a private placement to international and Indian institutional investors, including existing shareholders of Airtel, Singtel said.
Bharti Airtel Q2 results
Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel posted its sixth straight quarterly profit rise, as users upgraded to higher-margin 4G and 5G plans and on steady subscriber additions.
Its consolidated net profit jumped 89% to Rs 6,792 crore for the three months ended September 30.
Airtel's industry-leading average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key telecom metric - rose 10% year-on-year to Rs 256 in the quarter, with the number of 4G and 5G users in their customer base surging 8.4%.
Despite the rapid adoption of 4G and 5G plans, millions of Indians still rely on 2G feature phones for basic voice and SMS services, held back by affordability and low digital literacy in rural areas.
Airtel's India user base rose 10.6% year-on-year to about 450 million as of September 30.
Its overall revenue climbed 25.7% to Rs 52,145 crore, including sales from telecom infrastructure provider Indus Towers, in which Airtel bought a majority stake last year.
Total costs rose 15% due to a 26.3% spike in network expenses.
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