SingTel has increased its stake in Bharti airtel to 32.25 per cent, with the purchase of shares worth about Rs 0.93 billion.
The freshly acquired shares account for about 0.1 percentage point stake in Bharti airtel.
In a stock filig, SingTel stated that it has, through its subsidiary Viridian Limited, has bought 2.83 million shares of Bharti airtel through an open market purchase for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 0.93.4 billion.
At the end of December 2010, SingTel owned 15.72 per cent in Bharti airtel directly through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Pastel (15.57 per cent) and Viridian Limited, (0.15 per cent), while the rest was held indirectly by the parent company.
All the promoters together held nearly 68.2 per cent stake in Bharti airtel, including 45.48 per cent by Bharti Telecom as on December 31, 2010.
Among other shareholders, LIC has little over 5 per cent. In January this year, Viridian had purchased 4.07 million shares of Bharti airtel via open market for Rs 1.36 billion, taking its effective shareholding in airtel to 32.15 per cent.
In 2009, SingTel had purchased an additional 7.3 million shares in Bharti Telecom, which is the promoter company of Bharti airtel, thereby increasing SingTel’s effective interest to 31.95 per cent.
