Bharti Airtel is pulling out all the stops to prepare for the forthcoming auction.
The company has set aside $3-4 billion for the same, of which, it is planning to raise up to $1 billion by selling bonds to European investors.
In so far, the operator has appointed five banks including JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS Investment Bank, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas to function as joint book runners and lead managers for the bond issue. Investor meetings are likely to begin in Europe from November 27, 2013.
In addition, Bharti Airtel plans to utilise these funds to refinance its existing high-interest debt. In the quarter ended September 2013, the operator?s debt stood at $9.69 billion with a net debt-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation ratio of 2.18. The majority of this debt was incurred by the operator by purchasing 3G spectrum.
