Bharti Airtel Prepays Additional Rs 5,985 Crore Of Spectrum Dues
For the ongoing fiscal, Airtel has prepaid Rs 25,981 crore of high-cost spectrum liabilities. Cumulatively, it has prepaid liabilities totalling Rs 66,665 crore as on date.
Bharti Airtel Ltd. on Wednesday said that it has fully cleared high-cost debt pertaining to the 2024 auctions that carried interest rates of 8.65%.
Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Ltd. have prepaid an additional Rs 5,985 crore to the Department of Telecommunications, according to the company's press release.
"Underscoring its commitment to financial prudence, operational efficiency, and its strong capital position, Airtel continues to prepay its high-cost spectrum liabilities, lowering its debt and cost of debt," the announcement stated.
For the ongoing financial year, the telecom major has prepaid Rs 25,981 crore of high-cost spectrum liabilities. Cumulatively, Airtel has prepaid spectrum liabilities totalling Rs 66,665 crore as on date.
Emphasising its commitment to financial prudence, the company pointed out that the average interest rate on the cumulative liabilities prepaid was approximately 9.74%.
It had earlier fully prepaid liabilities that had interest rates of 10%, 9.75% and 9.3%. The company drew attention to the fact that it had prepaid the liabilities about seven years ahead of their average residual maturities.
The prepayments have resulted in Airtel clearing Rs 1,16,405 crore of scheduled instalments that would have otherwise been payable on their respective dates over the original tenure of the liabilities.
"Consequent to these payments, Airtel has also lowered its cost of debt on spectrum liabilities to an average of approximately 7.22% on the residual Rs 52,000 crore of spectrum liabilities (excluding AGR liabilities)," the statement added. The residual spectrum liabilities carry a long repayment profile payable in annual instalments until financial year 2041-42.
The company said that its subsidiary Network i2i Ltd. has also chosen to pay back its $1 billion in bonds, which were issued in fiscal 2020 and have no fixed maturity date.
“Perpetual notes otherwise had no contracted maturity and carried an interest rate of 5.65%. Post the redemption of USD 1 billion in perpetual notes, Airtel will have approximately USD 479 million of perpetual notes outstanding, which were issued during FY2021. These notes can be called in FY2026,” Airtel said.
Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd. closed 0.04% lower at Rs 1,733 apiece on the BSE, while that of Bharti Hexacom Ltd. closed 2.27% higher at Rs 1,474.05 apiece, compared to a 0.93% decline in the benchmark Sensex.
—With PTI inputs
