Singtel divests 0.8pc stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 5,849 cr

New Delhi: Singapore-based Singtel on Thursday offloaded 0.8 per cent stake in telecom company Bharti Airtel for Rs 5,849 crore through an open market transaction. NRI Rajiv Jain-backed GQG Partners, General Organization for Social Insurance, Australiansuper, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, GSF II Goldman Sachs and Reliance Trust Institutional Retirement Trust, were among the buyers of Bharti Airtel's shares. Singtel through its affiliate Pastel Ltd sold the shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Singtel entities, including Pastel and Viridian, are promoter entities of Bharti Airtel.

According to the block deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Pastel Ltd offloaded 4.90 crore shares, amounting to a 0.86 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel. The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 1,193.70 apiece, taking transaction value to Rs 5,849.13 crore. As of December 2023, Singtel entities, including Pastel Ltd and Viridian Ltd owned 10.43 per cent stake in Airtel. Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal's family and Singtel are co-investors in Bharti Telecom Ltd. Bharti Telecom at present holds 39.57 per cent stake in the country's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel.

On Thursday, shares of Bharti Airtel rose 0.95 per cent to close at Rs 1,205 apiece on the NSE. In November 2022, Singtel divested a 1.59 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 7,261 crore. The shares were picked by Bharti Telecom Ltd. In an exchange filing on SGX, Singapore Telecommunication Ltd (Singtel) on Thursday said it has unlocked another SGD 0.95 billion with the sale of a 0.8 per cent direct stake in regional associate Airtel to US-based investment firm GQG Partners. The resultant gain from the sale is estimated to be SGD 0.7 billion.

This transaction is the latest in the Singtel Group's capital recycling efforts to unlock value from its assets, bringing the total capital recycled to SGD 8 billion since its strategic reset in 2021, the filing said. This has allowed the Group to fund the growth of its data centre and IT services, as well as reduce net debt by SGD 3.2 billion as of end September 2023, it added.

After the transaction, Singtel will hold an effective stake of 29 per cent stake in Airtel, worth an estimated SGD 33 billion. "We're pleased to have raised SGD 0.95 billion, while adding a marquee name to Airtel's share base. The Group is now in an even stronger position to execute our disciplined capital approach of balancing investing for greater growth and delivering strong, sustainable returns for our shareholders," Arthur Lang, Singtel Group CFO said. Singtel has been a strategic investor in Airtel, one of the world's top three mobile operators with over 500 million customers in 17 countries, for more than 20 years. Singtel is Asia's leading communications technology group.