Tech giant Google has splashed out Rs 5,224 crore for a 1.2 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel even as Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) remains in talks to sell 2.4 per cent of its stake in the telecom operator to the Sunil Mittal-family.
Singtel’s effective stake in Bharti Airtel is 31.7 per cent. It holds a 49.44 per cent stake in Mittal family-owned firm Bharti Telecom with the Mittals holding the rest.
Bharti Telecom holds a 35.85 per cent in Bharti Airtel.
The Google payout to Airtel can speed up the Singtel share sale with reports indicating the two long standing partners still have to resolve their differences over valuation.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday disclosed that it has allotted over 7.1 crore equity shares to Google at Rs 734 per share.
Google in January had said it will invest up to $1 billion in Bharti Airtel through an equity purchase of 1.28 per cent for $ 700 million or about Rs 5,224 crore and a commercial agreement of $300 million on mutual terms over the next five years.
This includes investments in scaling Airtel’s offerings that cover a range of devices to consumers via innovative affordability programmes.
“The special committee of directors for preferential allotment of the company has at its meeting approved the allotment of 71,176,839 equity shares of the face value of Rs 5 each fully paid up, on a preferential basis to Google International LLC (Google) at an issue price of Rs 734 per equity share,” Airtel said in a filing.
Google made the investment as part of its $ 10-billion India Digitization Fund.
It had also invested Rs 33,737 crore (about $4.5 billion) to buy a 7.73 per cent stake in Jio Platforms just a couple of days after it made an announcement about the India Digitization Fund. Announcement of the deal saw the shares of Bharti Airtel rising for the second consecutive trading session on Friday.
On the BSE, its shares rose 1.50 per cent or Rs 9.65 to end at Rs 651.65. Its shares had recently come under pressure after the Adanis entered the 5G spectrum race.
Meanwhile, Airtel announced the successful trial of 5G private network at Bosch Automotive Electronics India facility in Bangalore.
The company said that its on-premise 5G captive private network was built over trial spectrum allocated by the DoT.
