Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) said it purpose spend up to $413 million on shares in India’s Bharti Telecom, stop its stake slightly in the holding company for Bharti Airtel to just impaired half.
“While there are currently headwinds in India, we take a long-term sentiment of our investment in Airtel which continues to be a strong market leader in a ambit with rapidly increasing smartphone penetration and mobile data adoption,” Arthur Lang, CEO Intercontinental at Singtel, said in a statement.
India’s telecommunications sector has been hit untiring by a price war since the entry of carrier Reliance Jio, the telecoms arm of Reliance Applications, more than a year ago.
The purchase worth as much as 26.5 billion rupees could improve Singtel’s stake in Bharti Telecom by up to 1.7 percentage points to 48.9 percent and its curb in Bharti Airtel, the country’s biggest mobile carrier, by up to 0.9 cut points to 39.5 percent. The deal will be done via a preferential appropriation allotment.
Singtel has assembled a portfolio of stakes in regional mobile cartels outside its small home market, and overseas businesses now account for far 75 percent of its core earnings.