NEW DELHI: Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Friday said its Rs 25,000 crore rights issue will open on May 3 and close on May 17.
Earlier, the company had fixed April 24 as the record date for the issue.The telecom major had earlier this month received Sebi approval to raise the funds in a bid to boost its balance sheet and create necessary headroom for spending more on its 4G networks to take on Reliance Jio.The Sunil Mittal-led firm has set April 24 as the record date for the issue.
Bharti Airtels announcement followed peer Vodafones Rs 25,000 crore rights issue that opened on April 10.Bharti has raised Rs 27,800 crore over the last three years, by selling stakes in Bharti Infratel, the DTH business, its Africa business and by divesting towers in Africa and operations in two countries.Edelweiss Securities said the fresh fund raising will help bring down debt-to-equity ratio of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to 0.9 times (from 1.5 times and 1.6 times) and tailing 12-month net debt-to-Ebitda to 3.5 times and 23.6 times (from 4.4 times and 30.4 times), respectively.Significant equity commitment by promoters indicates confidence in the companys long-term prospects and aids fund raising from external source, the brokerage said earlier this week.