Bharti Airtel to Raise $3 Billion From Equity and Debt to Clear AGR Dues

Bharti Airtel Board has rolled out a qualified placement of shares worth $2 billion and overseas changeable bond issue to raise $1 billion more. The amount raised will be used for the payment of statuary dues and capital expenditure. Airtel in the regulatory statement said that the QIP would be of shares of the nominal value of Rs. 5 each. The Fund Raising Committee which is created for this purpose, approved the minimum price of the Capital Shares offered in the Issue and resolved that the Committee may, in its absolute discretion, offer a discount of no more than 5% at the minimum price under Regulation 176 of Chapter VI of the SEBI ICDR Regulations; The committee also approved the opening of the January 8 issue, the telecom company said.

The telecom company was approved for approval of an issue of convertible bonds in foreign currency ("FCCBs") of up to $ 1 billion and a provision to raise an additional $ 250 million, subject on demand. "

"...our Board and Shareholders have, pursuant to resolutions dated December 4, 2019, and January 3, 2020, respectively, approved an issuance of foreign currency convertible bonds ("FCCBs") of an aggregate amount of up to $ 1,000 million. Simultaneously with the opening of this Issue, the Special Committee of Directors for Fund Raising has also authorised the opening of the FCCB Issue (including an upsize option of $ 250 million, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals)," the company said in a statement.

Bankers involved in the fundraising are Axis Capital, JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets, BNP Paribas, BoFa Securities-DSP Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, HDFC Bank and HSBC Securities and Capital Markets.

The Group's statement of profit & loss and statement of cash-flows for the six months ended September 30, 2019, was also published in a regulatory statement. Its total comprehensive loss for the six month time is Rs 2.51 crore.

For the December end quarter, Bharti Airtel's customers clocked in 758,897 million minutes, and about 89% of its data customers were on the 4G network. In a regulatory statement, Airtel confirmed that its data usage per customer was 13.92 GB.