Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) will acquire a 7.39 percent additional stake in the holding arm of India’s largest telecom company Bharti Airtel for $650 million. The deal comes just ahead of India’s largest-ever spectrum auction to date. Singtel currently has a 32.5 percent interest in Airtel.
“Thailand, India and Africa continue to be attractive, high-growth markets for us,” Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong said in a statement.
Singtel,which is 51.1 per cent owned by Temasek, said the transactions will be funded through internal cash, short-term debt and proceeds from a share placement of 386 million new Singtel shares to Temasek totaling SGD1.605 billion. The deals and the share placement are subject to minority shareholder and regulatory approvals, reports Mobile World Live. the company noted that the acquisitions and share placement are interdependent and have to close at the same time.
