Sunil Bharti Mittal, 68, will retire as chairman of Airtel Africa in July after the conclusion of this year's annual general meeting (AGM), the board of the African arm of India's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel said in a statement to the exchanges on Wednesday.
Shravin Mittal's venture capital firm, Unbound Advisors, has made investments worth over $500 million so far
Bharti Global, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises, has decided to buy 24.5 per cent equity in BT Group - a move that will make the Indian conglomerate the biggest shareholder in the UK's second-largest telecom company both in terms of market value and subscriber count. The shares are being purchased from billionaire Patrick Drahi's Altice UK through a combination of cash and debt .
Incidentally, the shareholders' approval for Shravin Mittal's appointment with an annual salary of up to Euro 250,000 (nearly Rs 1.50 crore), came on the same day (September one) when Wipro promoted chairman Azim Premji's son Rishad as chief strategy officer. Shravin would be a staff member in Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, or BAIN.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
On Sunday, at 12.07 am in Sriharikota, off the coast of the Bay of Bengal, it was almost like an early Diwali, with the sky lit up by the launch of 36 OneWeb satellites. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) did the launch on a 43.5-metre-tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) rocket. After the countdown, which started 24 hours in advance, once the mega screen marked the launch, a select group of invitees at the gallery cheered by applauding the feat.
