Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group on Wednesday bought back 4.99 per cent direct stake from UK's Vodafone at an estimated 1.4 billion dollar.
NEW DELHI: Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group on Wednesday bought back 4.99 per cent direct stake from UK's Vodafone at an estimated 1.4 billion dollar, raising its holding in Bharti Airtel to over 50 per cent.
The transaction is part of the agreement with Vodafone, which in February this year decided to sell this stake following its acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar. Vodafone had said it would transfer its 5.6 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel back to a Bharti Group company for USD 1.6 billion by November 2008.
"Pursuant to the announcement made in February 2007, Bharti is pleased to announce that one of its group companies has acquired a 4.99 per cent direct interest in Bharti Airtel from Vodafone," a statement from Bharti said here.
Vodafone, which bought 10 per cent stake for 1.5 billion dollar in 2005, still has 4.4 per cent indirect stake in Bharti group and 0.61 per cent direct stake in Bharti Airtel.
The Bharti group had earlier sold 4.99 per cent indirect stake in Bharti Airtel to Singapore-based private equity firm Temasek for about two billion dollar.
With this Bharti Group has enhanced its holding and voting interest in Bharti Airtel to over 50 per cent from about 46 per cent earlier. Singapore telecom major SingTel holds about 31 per cent in the company.
"With this, Bharti has enhanced its voting share in Bharti Airtel to over 50 per cent," the statement said.
Bharti Airtel, the top mobile player in the country with over 30 per cent market share and over 40 million subscribers, has a market capitalisation of Rs 1,67,000 crore. Its share price on BSE rose 2.29 per cent at Rs 883.10 on Wednesday.
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