Sunil Mittal's ICIL Sells Airtel Shares Worth Rs 8,485 Cr

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) Sunil Bharti Mittal family's holding company, Indian Continent Investment Ltd, has sold Airtel shares worth about Rs 8,485.11 crore through a market transaction, the telecom operator said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Bharti Airtel's promoter firm, Bharti Telecom -- a joint venture between Sunil Mittal family's investment arm and Singapore telecom major Singtel -- has acquired about 1.2 crore shares, or about 24 per cent, of the total sale by Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL) in the block deal.

With this acquisition of Airtel shares, Bharti Telecom's stake in Bharti Airtel has increased to 40.47 per cent from 40.33 per cent in November.

"ICIL has today sold around 0.84 per cent shareholding (around 5.11 Cr. shares) in Airtel through a market transaction, for an aggregate amount of around Rs 8,485.11 Cr. Bharti Telecom Limited, the promoter of Airtel, anchored the trade by acquiring around 1.20 crore shares (around 24 per cent of ICIL's sale of today), helping the overall book to be allocated only to key marquee long only names, both global and domestic," Airtel said in the filing.

Bharti Telecom had acquired around 1.2 per cent stake (about 7.31 crore shares) in Airtel from ICIL in November 2024.

"With this, Bharti Telecom now holds around 40.47 per cent of Airtel, reinforcing its previously stated intent of strengthening its position as the principal vehicle to hold controlling stake in Airtel, remaining focused on gradually increasing its stake while maintaining a prudent leverage profile as it does so," the filing said.

The shares were picked up by a clutch of domestic mutual funds (MFs), foreign investors and an insurance company.

WhiteOak Capital Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, Goldman Sachs, GQG Partners, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Fidelity Investments, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Nordea Funds, JP Morgan, and National Pension System Trust were the buyers of Bharti Airtel's shares.

Melbourne-based AustralianSuper, Vanguard, Reliance Trust Company and SBI Life Insurance Company, among others were also entities who have picked up shares of Gurugram-headquartered Bharti Airtel, according to the block deal data on the NSE.