Bharti Airtel Sheds 5% As Promoters Look To Sell Stake

Bharti Airtel shares dived nearly 6 per cent on Tuesday on the news that parent Bharti Telecom was looking at raising $1 billion by selling shares in the mobile phone operator through a block deal. The shares of Bharti Airtel ended at Rs 559, lower by Rs 34 or 5.7 per cent, on the BSE.

The share prices of Bharti Airtel have been on a tear in the recent past, surging to Rs 611 last week, on signs that the worse may be over for the beleaguered telecom sector. The years-long price war may be a thing of the past as the entry of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm in 2016 has accelerated consolidation in the telecom sector, leaving Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea as the only non-state competitors of Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Telecom will reportedly sell 150 million shares of Bharti Airtel at a floor price of Rs 558 per share, which is a discount of about 6 per cent to Friday's closing price of Rs 593.20. The markets were shut on Monday due to Eid-Ul-Fitr.

Bharti had raised $3 billion in January from the sale of shares and convertible bonds to help pay additional airwave and license fees.

The markets ended marginally lower, after a choppy session of trade, with the Sensex losing 0.21 per cent and Nifty shedding 0.1 per cent.