Airtel Arm Bharti Hexacom Files Papers For IPO
The IPO will consist of up to 10 crore shares with a face value of Rs 5 each via an offer-for-sale component only.
Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s wholly-owned subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Ltd. has approved the public listing of the company's shares, which will allow for a partial exit of the government.
The initial public offering of Hexacom will consist of up to 10 crore shares with a face value of Rs 5 each via an offer-for-sale component only, according to an exchange filing on Saturday. The plan has been approved by the board of directors.
The offer represents 20% of the subsidiary's equity that will be offloaded by Telecommunication Consultants of India Ltd. Airtel holds 70% of the equity share capital of the company, and the Union government holds the rest 30% through TCIL.
The telecom firm has filed a draft red herring prospectus with capital markets regulator Security and Exchange Board of India. Since there is no fresh issue in the public offering, Airtel will not receive any proceeds from the IPO, the company said.
Bharti Hexacom—incorporated in 1995—is in the telecommunications business in Rajasthan and the Northeast Circle. It is also the provider of fixed-line and broadband services in Rajasthan. As of Sept. 30, it was present in 486 census towns and had an aggregate of 29.1 million customers across both the circles.
The company relies on a robust network infrastructure with a mix of owned and leased assets. As of Sept. 30, it had 23,748 network towers, of which it owned 5,005 towers.
On the NSE, Airtel's shares rose as much as 1.27% during the day to a record high of Rs 1,139.25 apiece. It pared gains to close 0.11% lower at Rs 1,123.75 per share compared to a 0.23% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50. The IPO announcement came during market hours.
