Airtel shares drop 3% after ICIL offloads 3.43 cr shares for Rs 7,189 cr

New Delhi: ICIL, a company belonging to telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal's family office, on Wednesday sold 3.43 crore equity shares, or 0.56 per cent stake, in Bharti Airtel for about Rs 7,190 crore (USD 806 million).

After the share sale, Bharti Airtel's scrip fell 3 per cent to Rs 2,097.50 apiece on the NSE while it dipped by 2.81 per cent to Rs 2,100 per share on the BSE.

The Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL) is one of the promoter entities in city-based Bharti Airtel.

Under the transaction, the share sale comprises up to 34.3 million (3.43 crore) shares, representing 0.56 per cent of the outstanding share capital by the selling shareholder.

The shares were offloaded at a floor price of Rs 2,096.70 per share, a 3 per cent discount to Bharti Airtel's closing price of Rs 2,161.60 apiece on the NSE on Tuesday, according to a term sheet seen by PTI.

The transaction is pegged at around USD 806 million, or about Rs 7,189.19 crore.

ICIL owned a 1.48 per cent stake in Airtel at the end of the September quarter, stock exchange data showed. The promoter entities, including Bharti Telecom Ltd and Singtel's affiliate Pastel Ltd, hold a 50.27 per cent stake in the telecom major.

After the stake sale, ICIL's holding in Bharti Airtel dropped to 0.92 per cent from 1.48 per cent.

Earlier this month, Singtel said it had sold about 0.8 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 10,353 crore (SGD 1.5 billion), as it continues to proactively optimise its portfolio through asset recycling.

In August this year, ICIL divested nearly one per cent stake in telecom carrier Bharti Airtel for Rs 11,227 crore.

In February, Bharti Airtel announced that ICIL had sold Airtel shares worth about Rs 8,485.11 crore through a market transaction.