MUMBAI: In one of the biggest block deals this year, Indian Continent Investment, a promoter group entity of Bharti Airtel is selling a 0.8% stake in the telecom giant for about Rs 9,310 crore (over $1 billion). The deal is set to be executed through one or more block deals on Friday and is managed by the Indian units of Jefferies and JP Morgan.Indian Continent Investment will offload up to 5 crore shares at a floor price of Rs 1,862 per share, a 3.2% discount to Bharti Airtel’s last closing price of Rs 1,923 on the NSE on Thursday. In Feb this year, Indian Continent Investment had pared its stake in Bharti Airtel through block deals. It had sold about 0.85% stake through a deal worth more than Rs 8,000 crore.There has generally been deal activity in the Sunil Mittal led telecom firm this year. In May, another promoter entity of the company, Singapore Telecom (Singtel) shed some stake in the firm in a near $1-billion block deal. Indian Continent Investment currently holds about 2.4% in Bharti Airtel. This week also saw two block deals by China’s Ant Group worth a total of over Rs 8,000 crore to exit Paytm and Eternal (formerly Zomato).
