Sunil Mittal will become executive chairman.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it has slashed the monthly rental for its services on business phone Blackerry by up to 75 per cent to Rs 249 per month.
The stake, which is valued at Rs 8,200 crore at the company's current market capitalisation, will be sold by one of the group companies of Bharti Enterprises.
Market concentration in the country's telecom sector continues to scale new heights despite government bailouts of public-sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and private-sector Vodafone Idea. The combined revenue (or net sales) share of the country's top two telecom operators - Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - in the sector's total reached an all-time high of nearly 72 per cent in FY23 from 70.4 per cent in FY22 and around 60 per cent in FY20. The net sales of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India were Rs 1.67 trillion in FY23, up 18.6 per cent from the Rs 1.4 trillion a year earlier.
Airtel has allocated 199,870,006 new equity shares at price of Rs 340 each share, representing 5 per cent equity stake in the company to QFE.
Nilanjan Roy spent 13 years with Bharti Airtel, prior to which he worked for 15 years with Unilever across their global operations.
Under the new agreement, IBM will provide end-user services to airtel employees across Africa in French and English.
Country's largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Monday revealed its plans to launch iPhone 4, the latest product from Apple Computers's stable, by October.
SC said 10 per cent of the amount would have to be paid by March 31.
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.
The Indian telecom market presented a picture of sharp contrast in May with Bharti Airtel losing a staggering 46.13 lakh wireless subscribers even as rival Reliance Jio added 35.54 lakh mobile users, according to data from telecom regulator Trai. Overall, the Indian mobile market shed 62.7 lakh users in May.
Tata Motors, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Asian Paints were among the other laggards from the 30-share pack. Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Bank were among the gainers.
Bigger telecom companies are likely to get a bigger share of the 3G subscribers as they own high average revenue per user customers, who are more likely to sample premium services like 3G.
It also had other suitors like French company Vivendi, Egyptian company Etisalat and even MTN.
Bharti Airtel is all set to start financial services on mobile phones as the company has been granted a licence by the Reserve Bank of India recently.
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
The scrip had touched an all-time high of Rs 1,149 on the bourse earlier in the day. Mittal, who owns about 50 per cent stake in the group's flagship Bharti Airtel, saw his wealth soar to Rs 1,01,314 crore (about $25.51 billion), joining the league of trillionaires Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and Azim Premji.
Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it has earmarked a capital expenditure of $3.1 billion (over Rs 14,000 crore) for India and other global operations in the current fiscal.
Bharti Hexacom, a joint venture between Bharti Airtel and TCIL, offers mobile services in Rajasthan. Bharti owns a 70 per cent stake, while the remaining 30 per cent is held by state-run Telecom Consultants of India.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and ITC were the biggest laggards. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,294.69 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
Bharti Airtel has awarded Swedish telecom vendor Ericsson a $1 billion (about Rs 4500 crore or Rs 45 billion) contract extending over three years.
The company has given an initial pricing guidance of 5.5 per cent. The final coupon and size will be fixed later today," a merchant banker working on the issue told PTI.
This is the first merger in the country's crowded telecoms market in nearly six years.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, auction for which starts from April 9.
Among Sensex firms, Eternal, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Adani Ports, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Axis Bank and Sun Pharma were the major losers. Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle and Maruti were among the gainers.
Among 30 Sensex shares, Zomato tanked over 5 per cent. Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever and ITC were the biggest laggards. Bharti Airtel was the only gainer among Sensex scrips.
An Indian firm Vavasi Telecom is trying to rope in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited to pick up a stake in Zain.
From the Sensex constituents, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Eternal, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and Axis Bank were among the major gainers. In contrast, Trent, State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, Maruti and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the laggards.
Six consecutive profitable quarters after an equal number of losses - for Bharti Airtel, the turnaround has been quick. But it is not a result of higher tariffs or absence of exceptional items alone. Execution and strategy are playing a part, too. Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal summed it up in a post-result conference call last month. "We track the profit in each of our 237,500 (cell) sites.
Bharti Airtel will launch the 3G services by the year-end.
From the Sensex pack, Nestle India, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Infosys, Asian Paints, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv and Sun Pharmaceuticals were among the laggards. State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, Zomato, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services and Adani Ports were the gainers.
The Delhi HC has asked the department of telecommunications to not take any coercive action until the next hearing of the case.
The head of the South African mobile phone giant with huge interests in Africa was lauded by analysts here for having led MTN to great heights, but some felt that Nhleko's two failed attempts at a deal with Bharti Airtel had tarnished his image.
The government has issued an advisory to mobile operator Bharti Airtel to document properly all its telecom connections, including broadband.
The approval comes few days before the company has to clear statutory liabilities of up to nearly Rs 35,586 crore, of which Rs 21,682 crore is licence fee and another Rs 13,904.01 crore is spectrum dues.
Markets investors became richer by Rs 27.10 lakh crore as the BSE benchmark Sensex continued to rally for the sixth trading day, surging nearly 6 per cent during this period. On Monday, the 30-share BSE bellwether gauge jumped 1,078.87 points or 1.40 per cent to settle at an over six-week high of 77,984.38. During the day, the benchmark zoomed 1,201.72 points or 1.56 per cent to 78,107.23.
In view of the foreign investment that would come into Bharti Airtel via the proposed share-swap and cash transaction arrangement, the finance ministry has asked DoT to ascertain more specific contents of the deal and advise the ministry on the same. In its letter, DEA has also said that the transaction would need to adhere to the sectoral cap as per the FDI policy as also specific telecom sector regulations.
After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.
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.
Bharti Airtel, India's number one cellular operator on Tuesday received the nod from Bangladesh's telecom regulator to purchase 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom and to invest $300 million in the company.
