Indian Continent Investment, (ICIL), a promoter entity of Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday offloaded 0.56% of its shareholding (34.2 million shares) in Bharti Airtel through a block deal on the National Stock Exchange, the telco said in an exchange filing. The transaction was valued at Rs 7,195 crore.
Sunil Bharti Mittal’s family office owns ICIL, a Mauritius-based private equity firm and part of the telecom operator’s promoter group.
Transaction Details
ICIL sold the shares at a floor price of Rs 2,096.70, a 3% discount to the stock’s previous close on the NSE. Goldman Sachs India Securities was the sole placement agent for the transaction executed on Wednesday, with settlement being scheduled for November 27. The terms also include a 90-day lock-up.
Airtel’s disclosure to the exchanges included the letter from ICIL stating the share sale.
“The transaction attracted strong interest, receiving robust orders from marquee domestic and international long-only investors. Both new and existing shareholders of Airtel participated, with the placements majorly allocated to long-only investors…” ICIL said.
As of September 30, ICIL held 1.48% in Airtel.
Third Promoter Sale This Year
This is the third block deal by Airtel promoters this year. In May, Singapore-based telco Singtel, which holds promoter stake in the Indian telco through its subsidiary Pastel, offloaded 47.6 million shares at Rs 1,800 apiece to raise Rs 8,568 crore. In the first week of November, Pastel offloaded another 51 million shares at Rs 2,030 per share and raised Rs 10,300 crore.
