GQG Partners LLC and Fidelity Investments were among the several big name investors which bought into Bharti Airtel, according to people familiar, as billionaire-founder Sunil Bharti Mittal seeks funds for newer opportunities.
Indian Continental Investment, a founder entity of Bharti Airtel sold just over 0.8% stake or 51 million shares for Rs 8,485 crore ($976 million) and nearly a fourth of that was bought by another group firm Bharti Telecom, according to an exchange filing Tuesday.
Lazard Inc, SBI Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance were among the other investors which picked up the remaining shares, according to people aware of the development. GQG Partners is now among the top ten investors in the wireless carrier, one person said. The stake sale happened at Rs 1660.46 apiece, a small discount to Monday’s close of Rs 1,675.6.
An email sent to representatives of GQG Partners, Fidelity and Lazard did not get an immediate response out of normal business. Spokespersons for SBI Life and Bharti Airtel did not immediately comment while a representative for ICICI Prudential declined to comment.
The shares were “allocated only to key marquee long-only names, both global and domestic,” Airtel’s filing said. The sale comes at a time when Mittal is expanding his business operations overseas with investments in Africa and UK-based satellite company OneWeb. A unit of closely held Bharti Enterprises. bought a 24.5% stake in BT Group last year.