Bharti Airtel on Thursday said that Bharti Telecom and Singtel have mutually agreed to amend the existing shareholders' agreement to better align with business requirements and governance standards, and that as part of the changes, Singtel has relinquished "several key reserved rights".
India's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel will call in March 2026 the final tranche of about Rs 15,741 crore from its 2021 rights issue of Rs 21,000 crore, proceeds from which will be used towards retiring majority of non-government-related debt.
Tech Mahindra, Trent, Reliance Industries, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever, and ITC were also among the laggards. However, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Bajaj Finserv were among the gainers.
Bharti Airtel promoter Bharti Telecom will buy a 3.33 per cent Airtel stake from Singtel for 2.25 billion Singapore dollars or about Rs 12,895 crore in 90 days' time, the telecom operator said on Thursday. Bharti Group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal's family and Singtel are co-investors in Bharti Telecom (BTL). Singtel in a statement said that after the transaction, Singtel Group is expected to own an effective stake of 29.7 per cent in Bharti Airtel, which is estimated to be worth SGD 22 billion (about Rs 1.26 lakh crore).
Promoters of India's top private listed companies have cut their stakes sharply since 2021, taking advantage of elevated valuations and reshaping ownership dynamics in the market. Holdings of promoters in the top 200 privately owned listed firms declined nearly 600 basis points (bps) to 37 per cent at the end of FY25, from 43 per cent in FY21.
HCL Tech, State Bank of India, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and Titan were also among the losers in the Sensex pack. Eternal, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, ITC, Tata Motors and NTPC were among the gainers.
After the transaction with Temasek, Singtel will hold 47.39 per cent in Bharti Telecom.
Singapore Telecom is believed to have sought the removal of Vodafone representatives from the board of Bharti Airtel, following the British telecom major's bid to acquire a majority stake in Hutchison Essar.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has increased its stake in Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile service provider, to 32.15 per cent from 32.04 per cent.
DoT said SingTel was selling the full-circuit IPLC links to customers directly and also invoicing the customers in India without having a licence.
According to a report by the research arm of Citigroup, although SingTel will have no direct involvement in the Bharti-MTN deal, its holdings in Bharti may reduce due to the increased size of the merged entity. '...SingTel has no direct deal involvement and that the current 30.5 per cent (effective) stake in Bharti dilutes to 19.4 per cent. SingTel likely becomes a smaller shareholder in a larger entity,' the Citigroup report said.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal has thanked partner SingTel for standing by it in the $10.7-billion takeover of Kuwaiti telecom giant Zain's African business.
Singapore's leading telecom operator Singtel on Monday said it was committed to the long-term potential of the Indian market and would consider raising its stake in India's largest mobile player Bharti Airtel at "right terms and conditions".
The report quoted SingTel chief executive officer (CEO) Chua Sock Koong as saying that the talks were "at an extremely preliminary, exploratory stage". The company's CEO for international operations, Lim Chuan Poh, was quoted as saying that it was too early to determine if Bharti would make a bid for MTN or whether SingTel would provide financing for the deal. The executives were talking at the company's annual results event in Singapore.
Singapore Telecommunications is considering a bid for UK- based telecom Cable & Wireless Worldwide Plc, says a media report.
Singapore based telecom firm SingTel, which holds over 30 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday said it has full faith in the company's corporate governance standards under the leadership of company's chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.
Singapore Telecommunications has stepped up its stake in Bharti Televentures to 30.84 per cent from the current 28.16 per cent.
Singapore Telecommunications, the largest foreign shareholder in Bharti Televentures with 31 per cent stake, on Wednesday said it was open to increase its stake in the company subject to the right price.
South East Asia's largest telecoms company SingTel's wholly-owned subsidiary Viridian Ltd purchased 1.58 million shares of Bharti Airtel for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 42.27 crore or Singapore dollar 12.45 million, the company said in a filing to a Singapore stock exchange.
Singapore government's sovereign wealth fund Temasek is looking to invest $10 billion in India during the next three years, Ravi Lambah, Temasek's head of India and strategic initiatives, said.
Indian firms, including Tata Steel, in the past have formed SPVs to acquire foreign companies to protect local operations and also to avoid legal hindrances. The SPV may be registered in a tax-haven country, like Mauritius or Bahamas, the sources said. The move to float an SPV will help Bharti Airtel to continue being listed on Indian stock exchanges, while MTN's promoters will be given a stake in the SPV.
'We want to prove to the world that they will get the best code written from a small place like Wayanad.'
The company said the capital infusion will help it continue investments in future roll-outs to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships
The sale proceeds will be fully utilised to repay debt at Bharti Telecom and will make the promoter holding firm a 'debt free company'.
Bharti has been expanding its spectrum portfolio and now owns 4G data across all 22 circles in India
The board of Bharti Airtel approved the rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through the issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share and to raise an additional Rs 7,000 crore via the foreign currency perpetual bond issue.
Mobile entertainment developer Indiagames Ltd., has announced its partnership with SingTel (Singapore Telecommunications Ltd) to launch Asia Pacific's first and largest competition for mobile gamers - World Cyber Games (mobile).
India's largest private telecom company Bharti Airtel is believed to have held discussions to rope in Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, which directly and indirectly holds 30.5 per cent in the company, to bid for South African telecom major MTN Group.
The member operators are SingTel (Singapore), SingTel Optus (Australia), Maxis (Malaysia), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan), Telkomsel (Indonesia), Globe Telecom (POhilippines), CSL (Hong Kong) and Airtel (India).\n\n
Decades of military rule kept the country closed to foreign investors.
Bharti Airtel, nearly a third owned by Southeast Asia's top phone carrier SingTel, said it was helped by lower competition and an increase in voice call prices.
The telecom to look at opportunities to acquire another firm in India.
Bharti Airtel and five other telecom companies will lay the US-Asia undersea cable, with an estimated cost of $300 million.
Even at a slight premium, Bharti should buy into MTN since there are synergies.
Govt likely to make security clearance mandatory for telcos irrespective of equity holding before giving licences; DoT members to meet today.
Bharti's undersea fibre-optic cable connecting Chennai with Singapore has not been affected by the deadly tsunami waves, triggered by the massive quake off the Indonesian coast, its CMD Sunil Mittal said on Tuesday.
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