Bharti Airtel shareholders on Saturday approved selling 1.28% equity stake to Google for $700 million. The company will issue equity shares to US tech giant Google on “a preferential basis”. Shareholders also approved Bharti Airtel’s plans to spend Rs 1.17 lakh crore in related-party deals, including opex via joint venture Indus Towers. “The resolutions (as part of special businesses) were approved by the members of the company with overwhelming majority at Airtel’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 26 February,” Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing. Bharti Airtel shares fell over 2.30% and were trading at Rs 672 on Monday.
Last month, Google announced that it will invest up to $1 billion in Bharti Airtel, including an equity investment of about $700 million to acquire a stake in the company, to bring affordable smartphones and develop India specific 5G use cases. Google will acquire about 1.28% stake in the company at a price per share of Rs 734. Up to $300 million of Google’s investment in Airtel will go towards implementing commercial agreements.
“As a part of its first commercial agreement, Airtel and Google will work together to build on Airtel’s extensive offerings that covers a range of Android-enabled devices to consumers via innovative affordability programs,” Airtel had said. The two companies will make available smartphones across a range of price points, in partnership with various device manufacturers, it added. Google made the investment as part of its Google for India Digitization Fund.
On Saturday, Bharti Airtel’s proposal to spend Rs 1.17 lakh crore in business transactions with subsidiary companies Indus Towers, Nxtra and Bharti Hexacom was also approved by the majority of the shareholders. Bharti Airtel has plans to invest Rs 88,000 crore in business with Indus Towers. The telco will invest up to Rs 17,000 crore on transactions with Indus Towers in the next four financial years. Airtel cited 5G developments globally and in India as main reasons to invest heavily in Indus Towers. Considering the increased requirements of passive infrastructure during 5G network rollouts, Airtel plans to invest a higher amount of up to Rs 20,000 crore with Indus Towers during the financial year 2025-26.
Bharti Airtel will spend Rs 15,000 crore for availing the services of datacentre firm Nxtra. Shareholders also approved a transaction of up to Rs 14,000 crore with Bharti Hexacom, according to the EGM’s agenda.