Bharti Airtel acquires 1% additional stake in Indus Towers as Vodafone Plc sold 18% equity

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday bought around 1% stake in Indus Towers, by acquiring around 26.95 million shares, thus raising its stake to 48.95% from 47.95% it held earlier.

The shares were acquired by Bharti as UK’s Vodafone Plc sold an 18% stake in the tower firm for 1.7 billion euro (about Rs 15,300 crore). The shares were sold at Rs 310-341.

UK’s Vodafone, owned a 21.5% stake in the tower firm, and had initially planned to sell a 10% stake but strong investor demand promoted it to nearly double the sale size, sources said. Following the transaction, Vodafone’s stake comes down to 3.1%.