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Airtel board to meet today to consider fundraising options
The move is expected to give more power to Airtel, as the company takes on rivals in the Indian telecom market that is now gearing up for 5G.
The board of Bharti Airtel will meet on Sunday to consider various fundraising plans, including equity and debt. "A meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled on Sunday, August 29, 2021, to inter-alia consider various capital raising options through equity or equity linked or debt instruments or any combination there-of," Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges earlier on Wednesday.
The board to consider capital raising options through equity or equity-linked debt instruments or any combination thereof including through rights issue, qualified institutions placement, preferential issue, convertible instruments issued domestically or foreign currency convertible bonds, or warrants on a preferential or marketed basis, or straight long dated debt in rupee or foreign currency or any other mode including any combination thereof, it added, reports news agency PTI.
The move is expected to give more power to Airtel, as the company takes on rivals in the Indian telecom market that is now gearing up for 5G. Last year, the Supreme Court had said that telcos would be required to make the payment of 10 per cent of the total dues by March 31, 2021, while balance dues are to be paid in annual instalments commencing from April 1, 2021 up to March 31, 2031, payable by March 31 of every succeeding financial year.
According to the subscriber data released by telecom regulator recently, Bharti Airtel added 38.1 lakh wireless subscribers in June, pushing up its mobile user base to 35.2 crore. Reliance Jio gained 54.6 lakh users in June, as its mobile subscriber base swelled to 43.6 crore during that month. Vodafone Idea lost about 42.8 lakh subscribers during June, and its user base shrunk to 27.3 crore.
During the monsoon session of the Parliament, Minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply that while the total AGR dues of various telecom companies (both private and state-owned telcos) aggregated to ₹1,69,048.65 crore, payment totalling ₹30,283.59 crore has been received till date, and nearly ₹1,38,765 crore is outstanding payable.
