By: AswathyP
Bharti Airtel Ltd on Tuesday said its wholly-owned subsidiary Bharti International (Singapore) Pte Ltd has bought an additional 6.3% stake in Bangladesh’s second largest telecom operator Robi Axiata Ltd for an undisclosed fee from Japanese telecom major NTT Docomo Inc.
Following the acquisition, Bharti Airtel’s stake in Robi Axiata increased to 31.3% from 25%. Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad owns the remaining 68.7% stake in the Bangladeshi mobile operator.
Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary acquired the stake at a “mutually-agreed valuation”, the Indian telecom firm informed the exchanges.
“The said valuation is non-material and is not disclosed herein due to reasons of confidentiality,” Bharti Airtel said.
The deal is a pre-cursor to the Bangladesh-based telecom operator’s initial public offering on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, the prospectus for which was filed in March. The stake sale also marked an exit for NTT Docomo before the IPO.
Right now, Robi Axiata’s larger rival Grameenphone Ltd is the only mobile operator listed on the country’s stock exchanges.
In February, Axiata Group had informed the stock exchanges that its Bangladesh-based subsidiary would be going for an initial public offering worth 5.24 billion Bangladeshi taka, or ₹4.65 billion, for a 10% stake.
Bharti Airtel had merged its Bangladesh-based unit with Robi Axiata in November 2016 to strengthen its position in the country’s mobile industry.
