Bharti Airtel promoter entity ICIL to sell 3.43 cr shares for Rs 7,189 cr

New Delhi, Nov 25 (PTI) A company belonging to telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's family office will sell 3.43 crore equity shares, or 0.56 per cent stake, in Bharti Airtel for about Rs 7,190 crore (USD 806 million) on Wednesday.

Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL), a promoter entity of Sunil Bharti Mittal family office, will sell shares through one or more share sales on the Indian stock exchanges 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.

An email query sent to Bharti Airtel did not elicit any reply till the filing of the story.

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

As per the term sheet, the transaction is pegged at around USD 806 million, or about Rs 7,189.19 crore.

The transaction is being handled by Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Pvt Ltd as the sole placement agent.

The sale is entirely secondary in nature, meaning no new shares will be issued, and the proceeds will go to the selling shareholders.

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 will drop to 0.92 per cent from 1.48 per cent.

Following the completion of the offering, ICIL will be subject to a 90-day lock-up period on its remaining shares in Airtel, restricting any further equity sales during that period.

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. PTI HG HG BAL BAL