Bharti Airtel Board Approves Increase Stake In Airtel Africa Via Subsidiary

The board of Bharti Airtel Ltd. approved raising its stockholding in its subsidiary Airtel Africa up to 5% in one or more tranches through its step-down subsidiary—Airtel Africa Mauritius Ltd.

Airtel Africa Mauritius presently holds a 57.29% stake in Airtel Africa, according to an exchange filing on Friday. Also, the said acquisition will take place through cash consideration.

On Tuesday, Indian Continent Investment Ltd., a promoter-group entity of Bharti Airtel Ltd., offloaded a 0.84% stake worth Rs 8,485.1 crore through a market transaction.

ICIL sold approximately 5.11 crore shares in the telecom company at Rs 1,660 apiece. Bharti Telecom Ltd., another promoter of Airtel, anchored the trade by acquiring about 1.2 crore shares, or 24% of ICIL's sale, according to an exchange filing. The move helped the "overall book to be allocated only to key marquee long-only names, both global and domestic."

Airtel's consolidated net profit surged over fourfold sequentially in the third quarter of the current financial year, beating analysts' estimates.

The telecom giant reported a net profit of Rs 14,781.2 crore during the October–December period, compared to Rs 3,593.2 crore in the previous quarter. The increase in profit before tax can be attributed to a net exceptional item amounting to Rs 7,545.6 crore.

Shares of Airtel closed 0.26% lower at Rs 1,639.25 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, compared to a 0.51% fall in the benchmark Nifty. The stock has risen 43.81% in the last 12 months.

30 out of the 35 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock, three recommend 'hold' and two suggests 'sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analysts' price targets implies a potential upside of 13.5%.