Airtel Withdraws Scheme For New Corporate Structure

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said the scheme for a new corporate structure it had announced on April 14, 2021 has been "withdrawn" as the board is of the view that its existing structure is optimal for tapping emerging opportunities and unlocking value while scaling up digital businesses.

The "seminal" telecom sector reforms package announced by the government has significantly boosted the outlook and investor confidence for the industry while simplifying the licence framework, the company said in a statement.

With a strong balance sheet and 5G-ready network, Bharti Airtel said it is "well positioned" to invest aggressively in the emerging growth opportunities offered by India's digital economy.

"The Board of Directors of Airtel is of the view that the existing corporate structure of the company is, therefore, optimal for leveraging these emerging opportunities and unlocking value while continuing to scale up Airtel's digital businesses," it said.

Accordingly, it added, the scheme of arrangement for the new corporate structure announced on April 14, 2021 "stands withdrawn".

Under a modified scheme, the company, as previously approved by the board, will merge its wholly-owned subsidiary Telesonic Networks with itself, resulting in consolidation of fibre assets into Airtel.

Besides this, Nettle Infrastructure Investments will also be merged with Airtel.

"As announced earlier, the company will pursue its plan to eventually fold the DTH business (Bharti Telemedia) into Airtel to move towards the NDCP vision of converged services to customers," it said.

NDCP refers to the National Digital Communications Policy.

The company's businesses continue to be categorised under four key verticals - India, Digital, International and Infrastructure, it added.

Bharti Airtel last year had announced a new corporate structure to sharpen the company's focus on driving the rapidly-unfolding digital opportunities while enabling it to unlock value.

The new structure involved Airtel Digital Limited folding into the listed entity Bharti Airtel.

This was intended to house all of the digital assets spanning Wynk Music, Airtel X stream, Airtel Thanks, Mitra Payments platform used by a million retailers, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and all future digital products and services, the company had said on April 14, 2021.

The company at that time had stated that the telecom business will be housed in a newly created entity - Airtel Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited.

Bharti Telemedia, the 100 per cent owned arm operating DTH services, will sit alongside Airtel Limited for now, it had stated at that time.