Billionaire Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel Raising Stake In African Unit Via $2.9 Billion Share Swap

A Bharti Airtel Ltd. store in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

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Airtel-Controlled by Indian billionaires Sunil Mittal— plans to strengthen its control of the fast-growing business by consolidating its stake in its London-listed African unit through a stock swap worth 282 billion rupees ($2.9 billion).

The company’s board approved a preferential issuance of up to 146.8 million shares at Rs 1,923 per share to Continental Investments, a company linked to the Mittal family. In return, Bharti Airtel will acquire Indian Continent’s 16.3% stake in Airtel Africa. According to a company, the new shares were issued at a premium of 9.5% to Bharti Airtel’s last closing price, while Airtel Africa shares were purchased at a discount of 11.6% to the last closing price. statement Published Wednesday.

“The board recognizes that this transaction is consistent with the objective of consolidating or strengthening equity interests in strategic subsidiaries,” the company said in a statement. “The transaction is accretive to Airtel India’s earnings per share, with additional gains exceeding diluted earnings.”

Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, Bharti Airtel’s Airtel Africa Mauritius will increase its stake in Airtel Africa from 62.7% to 79%.

Airtel Africa provides telecommunications and mobile payment services in 14 African countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania and Madagascar. The company’s net profit more than doubled to $813 million in the year ending March 2026, as revenue grew 24% to $6.4 billion as its user base expanded 10% to 185 million.

Mittal has been expanding its business beyond India. Beyond Africa, the family also has a stake in British satellite company OneWeb, which competes with Elon Musk’s Starlink. At the end of 2024, a subsidiary of privately held Bharti Enterprises also acquired a 24.5% stake in the British telephone and telecommunications giant BT Group.

Bharti Airtel has more than 600 million customers in South Asia and Africa and competes with Reliance Jio Infocomm, controlled by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and billionaire Kumar Birla’s Vodafone Idea. In 2022, Google announced an investment of US$1 billion in Bharti Airtel.

According to real-time data from Forbes, Mittal has a net worth of $13.4 billion, making him one of the richest people in India. He also owns Airtel Payments Bank, a joint venture with Kotak Mahindra Bank, controlled by billionaire Uday Kotak.