Bharti Airtel Redeems $1-Billion 10-Year Bond

Bharti Airtel Ltd. announced on Tuesday that the company has redeemed bonds aggregating to $1 billion on Tuesday.

Earlier on June 3, Airtel approached the global debt market to raise up to $1 billion in a 10-year bond sale programme. The company's $1-billion Reg S bond was in the market.

"This is in reference to the aforementioned bonds issued by the company vide offering memorandum dated June 03, 2015 (offering memorandum), due for maturity on June 10, 2025 unless previously repurchased, cancelled or redeemed," according to an exchange filing.

The company informed that it fully redeemed the bonds aggregating to $1 billion on June 10 in accordance with the terms and conditions as prescribed in the offering memorandum, it added.

Accordingly, following the redemption, the aforementioned redeemed bonds have been cancelled and shall be delisted from the Singapore Exchange Ltd.

In simple words, bond redemption means the issuer of a bond pays back the principal amount to the bondholder either when the bond reaches its maturity date or earlier if the bond is callable.

Bharti Airtel's most recent bond ratings are primarily in the "BBB-" range from various rating agencies. Rating Agencies specifically, Moody's, Fitch, and S&P have all affirmed or affirmed and changed the outlook of their ratings to positive, as per company.

• Moody's has Baa3 issuer rating affirmed, with a positive outlook change.

• Fitch has given long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating or IDR and senior unsecured rating at 'BBB-', with a Stable outlook.

• S&P has given BBB- rating, with a positive outlook.

• CRISIL has given Bharti Airtel an AA+ rating with a positive outlook.

Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 0.49% lower at Rs 1,855.90 apiece, compared to a flat benchmark NSE Nifty 50. It has risen 30.23% in the last 12 months and 16.96% on a year-to-date basis.

Twenty-seven out of the 33 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock, four recommend a 'hold' and two suggest a 'sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analyst price targets implies a potential upside of 7.9%.