Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has acquired an additional 1% stake in Indus Towers, following reports that the UK-based Vodafone Group has divested approximately 20% of its shares in the tower company
In an exchange filing, Bharti Airtel announced the purchase of 2.695 crore shares of Indus Towers ‘on-market’, following the directors’ approval to acquire up to 2.7 crore shares. Prior to this transaction, Bharti Airtel held a 47.95% stake in Indus Towers. With this acquisition, its stake has increased to 48.95%.
Vodafone Group is believed to have sold its 20% stake in Indus Towers through a block deal at an average price of ₹312 per share. Sources confirmed to CNBC-TV18 that domestic mutual funds, foreign institutional investors, and a significant existing investor were the buyers in this block deal.
Reports indicated that private equity firms I Squared Capital and alternative investment firm Stonepeak were among those interested in purchasing Vodafone’s stake in the mobile tower company.
Following this, Abhilash Pagaria of Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research projected a float adjustment for Indus Towers in passive indices in the coming days. Pagaria estimated that the float adjustment could result in a global passive flow impact of $200 million, with around $130 million expected to flow through Indus Towers’ adjustment in the MSCI index and an additional $65 million through changes in the FTSE index.
On Wednesday, shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd. were trading 1.13% lower at ₹1,412.15, while Indus Towers’ stock dropped 5% to ₹327.40.
Source: CNBC-TV18
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