In a significant market move, Bharti Airtel's promoter group entity has initiated a major stake sale worth billions of rupees, marking the second such transaction within months.
Block Deal Details and Pricing
Indian Continent Investment, a promoter group entity of Bharti Airtel Ltd, is set to divest a 0.56% stake in the telecom giant for approximately $806 million (₹7,191 crore). The block deal, launched on Tuesday, involves selling 34.3 million shares at an offer floor price of ₹2,096.70 per share.
The offer price represents a 3% discount to Tuesday's closing price of ₹2,161.60 on the National Stock Exchange. Interestingly, the Bharti Airtel stock had closed 0.2% higher on the same day, demonstrating investor confidence despite the stake sale announcement.
Transaction Timeline and Key Players
The block deal offer is scheduled to close on 26 November, with an expected settlement date of 27 November. Global investment bank Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Pvt. Ltd has been appointed as the sole placement agent for this significant transaction, handling the entire process.
As of September end, Indian Continent Investment held 1.48% of Bharti Airtel, making this sale a substantial portion of their holdings. This marks the second major stake sale by the promoter entity this year, following a 1% stake disposal worth approximately $1.28 billion (₹11,200 crore) in August.
Positive Market Sentiment and Financial Performance
The stake sale comes at a time when Bharti Airtel is receiving positive recognition from credit rating agencies. Last week, S&P Global Ratings upgraded Bharti Airtel's credit rating to "BBB" from "BBB-", with a positive outlook, reflecting expectations of strong earnings growth over the next 24 months.
The rating agency anticipates the company's growth to be primarily driven by its Indian operations, supported by a 2-4% increase in subscribers and an average revenue per user (Arpu) growth of 6-8% during this period. This growth trajectory is expected to come from customers upgrading to higher-priced plans and increasing data consumption patterns.
Bharti Airtel's recent financial performance underscores this optimistic outlook. The company reported revenue of ₹52,145 crore in the September quarter, representing a 25.7% increase from a year earlier and a 5.4% growth from the preceding quarter's ₹49,463 crore.
The telecom operator's wireless customer base expanded to 364 million as of September 2025, up from 351 million a year earlier. The company's net profit saw remarkable growth, surging 89% from a year earlier to ₹6,792 crore, aided by reduced losses at its associate and joint ventures during the quarter, along with lower finance costs.
On a sequential basis, Airtel's net profit increased by 14.2% from ₹5,948 crore in the preceding quarter, demonstrating consistent performance improvement. The revenue growth was largely propelled by increased mobile services business, with particular emphasis on premium services and expansion in Airtel Africa operations.
