Sunil Mittal led Bharti Airtel has got the approval nod from its board members for fundraising of ₹32,000 Crore. The teleco will raise funds from rights issue and perpetual bond float and will invest the raised capital to cut its debt and to meet its capital expenditure needs for the expansion of its 4G network, so that it can stand against the stiff competition by Mukesh Ambani led Jio.
“The Bharti Airtel board has considered the recommendations of the special committee of directors, and thereby approved the fund raising of up to Rs 32,000 crore through a rights issuance of up to ₹25,000 crore and perpetual bond with equity credit up to ₹7,000 crore,” the company said in exchange filing.
The rights issue will be at ₹220 per fully paid equity share which is about 31% lower than its closing stock price of ₹317.95 on BSE on Thursday. This mega fund raising was announced after market hours thus did not had any impact on the stock market with Airtel’s stock closing at 0.63% lower on Thursday.
In its exchange filing the company said that its board had “approved the issuance of fully paid-up equity shares of the company for an amount, aggregating ₹25,000 crore by way of a rights issue to eligible equity shareholders as on the record date, (to be notified subsequently),” in accordance with SEBI (Issue of Capital Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018.
Airtel from last 2 months has been trying to raise fund through selling its stake and rights issue so that it can survive the ongoing tariff war.