Bharti Airtel's stock up over 3% on share buyback plan

Bharti Airtel's shares were trading up over 3% on Monday morning on the news that the company may consider a buy back of equity shares in its board meeting on April 27. 

The story hit an intraday high of 3.11% at Rs 363.85 per piece. At 1030 hours, the telecom company's shares were at Rs 361.60, still up Rs 8.50 or 2.41% but slightly lower from the day's high.

At the time, BSE Sensex was down by half a percent at 25,707.46 due to weakness in the Asian markets. 

While the company said it will be mulling a share buy back, it hasn't put a number on it. 

"The board of directors of the company will consider to recommend final dividend for the financial year ended March 31, 2016 or buy back of equity shares of the company or a combination thereof, in its meeting scheduled to be held on April 27, 2016," the company said in a filing to BSE.

As of the quarter ended March 31, public shareholding of the company stood at 33.21%, whereas the promoters held 66.74%.

The country's top mobile phone operator is also looking to sell 5% stake in its tower unit Bharti Infratel through an open market trade deal to raise about Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore, sources said.

The proceeds of the sale are likely to be used to cut debt, sources added.

They, however, did not give any timeline for the stake sale.

Airtel's net debt stood at Rs 78,816 crore at the end of December 2015.

(With inputs from PTI)