India’s Bharti Airtel plans to raise up to $ 2.86 billion through share sale

NEW DELHI, Aug.29 (Reuters) – Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS) announced on Sunday that it plans to raise up to 210 billion rupees ($ 2.86 billion) through a sale shares to existing shareholders as it builds a war chest to prepare for the launch of 5G services.

Bharti said the shares would be priced at 535 rupees a piece, which is about a 10% discount from Friday’s close of 595.15 rupees.

Bharti founding chairman Sunil Mittal and other members of the founding group will also participate in the share purchase, the company said in a statement.

The company said shareholders would be eligible to buy one share for 14 shares they own in the telecommunications company.

India, one of the world’s largest telecommunications markets, has been rocked by billionaire mogul Mukesh Ambani, Jio Infocomm, which launched in late 2016.

With more than 352 million subscribers, Airtel is the second Indian operator in terms of users after Jio.

Ambani kicked out several competitors from the market while others, such as Britain’s local unit Vodafone (VOD.L) and India’s Idea, merged to resist Jio’s onslaught.

Ambani has also secured support from Facebook (FB.O) as well as Qualcomm and Intel (INTC.O) for its digital unit Jio Platforms, the parent company of its telecommunications company.

Jio has developed its own 5G solution and Ambani said the operator will be the first to launch 5G services in India.

($ 1 = 73.4700 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Angus MacSwan

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