Bharti Airtel gets CCI approval to raise stake in Indus Towers; check details

Indus Towers shares started the session rising as much as 3.87% in early trade at ₹380.95 apiece on the NSE on Wednesday. However, the share price lost momentum and erased all its gains to fall as much as 2.09% to an intraday low of ₹359.05 apiece. However, the stock recovered some early losses to trade at ₹362 apiece, down 1.2%, on the NSE at 11:40 am.

On Tuesday, the Competition Commission of India approved Bharti Airtel's increase in its shareholding in Indus Towers Ltd. following the telecom infrastructure company's share buyback.

The competition regulator said in a press release, “The Commission approves an increase in the percentage shareholding of Bharti Airtel Ltd (Bharti Airtel) in Indus Towers Ltd (Indus Towers) to 50.005% pursuant to buy back of shares by Indus Towers.”

The development makes Indus Towers a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, giving the latter a controlling interest in the telecom infrastructure company.

Bharti Airtel shares were also trading in the red on Wednesday. The stock was 0.12% lower at ₹1,690.65 apiece on the NSE after hitting the day’s high of ₹1,701 apiece.

In August, Bharti Airtel announced that it would hold a 50% stake in Indus Towers after the completion of the telecom infrastructure firm's ongoing ₹2,640-crore share buyback scheme.

On August 14, Indus Towers launched the buyback of over 5.67 crore shares at ₹465 apiece, representing approximately 2.1% of its total equity.

Indus Towers Q2 results

Earlier this week, Indus Towers announced its consolidated results for the September 2024 quarter. The company reported a net profit of ₹2,224 crore, up 71.7% from a year ago.

Consolidated revenue for the quarter stood at ₹7,465 crore, up 4.7% year-on-year. The company said that its Q2 FY25 results included a write-back of ₹1,077 crore in provisions for doubtful receivables, supported by collections against past overdue amounts.