| Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 17 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, Bharti Airtel ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. The company offers an integrated suite of telecom solutions to its enterprise customers, in addition to providing long distance connectivity both nationally and internationally. The Company also offers Digital TV and IPTV Services. All these services are rendered under a unified brand 'Airtel' either directly or through subsidiary companies.
The company operates in four strategic business units, namely Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Digital TV business provides Direct-to-Home TV services across India. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to telcos.
The company also deploys, owns and manages passive infrastructure pertaining to telecom operations under their subsidiary Bharti Infratel Ltd. Bharti Infratel Ltd own 42% of Indus Towers Ltd. Bharti Infratel Ltd and Indus Towers Ltd are the largest passive infrastructure service providers for telecom services in India.
Bharti Airtel Ltd was incorporated in the year 1995 with the name Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. The company was promoted by Bharti Telecom Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of India. The name of the company was changed from Bharti Tele-Ventures to Bharti Airtel Ltd with effect from April 24, 2006 in order to reflect their brand essence, objective and the nature of their business activities.
During the year 1995-96, the company launched mobile services under the brand name 'Airtel' for the first time in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. During the year 1997-98, the company became the first private telecom operator to obtain a license to provide basic telephone services in the state of Madhya Pradesh. They incorporated Bharti BT VSAT Ltd and Bharti BT Internet Ltd during the year.
During the year 1999-2000, the company acquired JT Mobiles for providing cellular services operator in Punjab, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Also, they acquired Skycell, Chennai and thus, they expanded their South Indian footprint. During the year 2001-02, they launched IndiaOne, India's first private sector national and international long distance service. They acquired licenses for eight new circles across India. In July 2001, the company acquired 100% equity interest in Bharti Mobitel Ltd (erstwhile Spice Cell Ltd), which provided mobile services in the Kolkata circle.
During the year 2002-03, the company launched cellular mobile services in the circle of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana and Gujarat, fixed line services in the circles of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and International Long Distance Services. They also commenced commercial operations for their submarine cable landing station.
During the year 2003-04, the company obtained the new licenses for providing the Unified Access Services, which include telecom circles of West Bengal (including Andaman & Nicobar and Sikkim), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir and UP (East). They also acquired interest in the telecom circles of Rajasthan and North Eastern States, through the acquisition of 67.5% equity stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd.
During the year 2004-05, Bharti Cellular Ltd and Bharti Infotel Ltd, subsidiaries of the company, merged with the company with effect from April 1, 2004. Prior to merger of Bharti Cellular Ltd with the company, Bharti Mobile Ltd operated in circles of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab merged with Bharti Cellular Ltd. The company acquired an additional stake of 1% from Fouad M T Al Ghanim Trading & Cont Co Kuwait one of the shareholder of Bharti Hexacom Ltd.
During the year, the company and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd entered into an agreement to share the company's national long distance network for a period of 15 years for a consideration of Rs 5,000 million. They entered into a regional mobile services agreement with six other leading mobile operators, namely Globe Telecom, Philippines; Maxis, Malaysia; Optus, Australia; SingTel, Singapore; Taiwan Cellular Corporations, Taiwan and Talkomsel, Indonesia and formed a regional alliance, namely Bridge Alliance.
In April 2005, the company through their erstwhile 100% subsidiary Bharti Infotel Ltd, which was merged with the company acquired 100% equity stake in Bharti Broadband Ltd (formerly known as Comsat Max Ltd) by acquiring their holding company Satcom Broadband Equipment Ltd (formerly known as CMax Infocom Ltd). Also, Satcom Broadband Equipment Ltd and Bharti Broadband Ltd were amalgamated with the company with effect from October 1, 2005.
During the year 2005-06, the company signed a managed capacity expansion contract with Ericsson for providing managed services and expands their GSM /GPRS network into rural India in 15 circles. Also, they entered into an agreement with Nokia to expand their managed GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE networks in eight circles. The company and IBM launched Managed Services under their joint go-to-market program.
During the year, Vodafone acquired 10% economic interest in the company by way of subscription of convertible debentures in Bharti Enterprises Ltd. Also, the company entered into strategic partnership outsourcing agreements for their customer care call center operations with four international BPOs - Hinduja TMT (HTMT), IBM Daksh, Mphasis and TeleTech Services.
During the year 2006-07, the company incorporated seven wholly owned subsidiaries namely Bharti Airtel (USA) Ltd, Bharti Airtel (UK) Ltd, Bharti Airtel (Hong Kong) Ltd and Bharti Airtel (Canada) Ltd, Bharti Infratel Ltd, Bharti Telemedia Ltd and Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. They received letter of offer from Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka for providing 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka.
During the year, the company entered into agreement with Microsoft to offer software and services for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market in India and to offer Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 5.0 technology to its customer. They entered into agreement with Google to offer search services on Airtel Mobile. Also, they entered agreement with Adani Group to connect Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone and with IBM to deliver India's first 'Service Delivery Platform'.
In July 2006, the company launched 'Airtel Mega' Fixed Wireless Phone (FWP) services. In September 14, 2006, they acquired 43,750 thousand shares of Bharti Hexacom Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs 875,000 thousand thereby increasing their stake from 68.5% to 68.89%.
In December 2006 the company announced their foray into USA with the launch of Airtel CallHome service for Non-Resident Indians. In March 2007, they introduced BlackBerry 8800TM business phone. In April 3, 2007, Bharti Airtel (Singapore) Pvt Ltd, Singapore, was incorporated for providing Voice Interconnection, Prepaid International Calling Services, International Private Leased Circuits and VSAT Trading.
During the year 2007-08, Bharti Airtel Services Ltd (erstwhile Bharti Comtel Ltd), the wholly owned subsidiary of the company, sold their entire shareholding in Bharti Telemedia Ltd to the company and Bharti Enterprise Ltd in the ratio of 40% and 60%, respectively. The company acquired 2% stake in a subsidiary of IFFCO Ltd called IFFCO Kissan Sanchar Ltd at a consideration of Rs 50,125 thousand. Also, they invested USD 1,200 thousand towards 1,200 thousand shares, of Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd, Singapore (Bridge Mobile).
During the year, the company entered into a joint venture agreement with Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd and formed an independent tower company namely, Indus Towers Ltd for providing passive infrastructure services in 16 circles of India.
In September 7, 2007, the company acquired 49% of the equity in Bharti Aquanet Ltd, India, at a consideration of Rs 159,549 thousand making Bharti Aquanet Ltd a 100% subsidiary of the company. In September 28, 2007, they acquired 100% of the equity in Network i2i Ltd, Mauritius, at a consideration of USD 133,400 thousand.
In October 1, 2007, the company incorporated a new company namely, Bharti Airtel Holding (Singapore) Pte Ltd in Singapore as an investment holding company of the company. In January 2008, the company transferred the passive telecom infrastructure business of the company to Bharti Infratel Ltd.
During the year 2008-09, the company made their foray into media and television by redefining home entertainment with Airtel digital TV. They launched their virtual calling card service 'Airtel CallHome' in UK, Singapore and Canada. The service is targeted at the huge Indian Diaspora, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Indian students in these markets.
The company launched their mobile services in Sri Lanka under the Airtel brand. They expanded their footprint by launching their Mobile Services in Lakshadweep. They also launched VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Services for their enterprise customers in India in partnership with VeriSign.
In February 19, 2009, the company increased their stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd by 1.11% through acquisition of 2,780,306 equity shares for an aggregate consideration of Rs 166,818 thousand. In March 4, 2009, the company subscribed 1,470,000 equity shares (49% stake) in Bharti Teleports Ltd for an aggregate consideration of Rs. 14,700 thousand.
In October 2009, the company launched live mobile comic service on their mobile entertainment portal, Airtel Live. In October 23, 2009, they acquired an additional 55% equity stake in their subsidiary, Bharti Telemedia Ltd for a consideration of Rs 7.38 crore. Consequently, the total equity interest of the company in Bharti TelemediaLtd increased to 95%.
In January 12, 2010, the company agreed to acquire 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group. Warid Telecom is offering mobile services across all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. As of January 2010, the company had an aggregate of over 131 million customers in South Asia, including 121.7 million mobile customers in India.
In March 11, 2010, the company made their debut into Media & Entertainment with the launch of the Airtel Digital Media Business. With this, the company is able to offer Content Delivery Solutions for media and entertainment sector.
In June 2010, the company acquired Zain Group's mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an enterprise valuation of USD 10.7 billion. With this, the company has become the first Indian brand to go truly global with a footprint that covers over 1.8 billion people. Also, the company has become a major Indian MNC with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa with a customer base of over 180 million.
During the year 2010-11, the company introduced a completely new, fresh and vibrant brand logo and identity.Apart from India and Sri Lanka, the brand also started to offer its services to consumers in Bangladesh making the Company a powerhouse across South Asia. Across the seas, the Company established a strong presence in the 16 countries across the African continent.
During the year, Airtel won the 'Most Preferred Cellular Service Provider Brand' award in the CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards 2010 for the 6th year in a row. The CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards were based on an extensive consumer survey done by Nielsen, wherein the customers rated brands across different categories which delivered true value for money.
During the year, the company launched 3G Services in 9 of 13 circles with 3G spectrum, empowering all 3G customers to manage their data usage and avoid 'bill shock' with proactive, personalised and timely data usage alerts coupled with introduction of easy-to-understand intuitive tariffs with personalised data usage limits.
They launched various new and innovative products and services, such as airtel money, airtel call manager, airtel voice blog, airtel world SIM, Live Aarti, LearnNext, IPTV, airtel broadband TV, Unified Service Management Centre (uSMC), Global Data Services, airtel digital TV recorder, MAMO (My Airtel My Offer) and i-Care directly and through its subsidiaries, which enabled it to strengthen their leadership in an intensely competitive market.
During the year, the company launched their New Vision for India and South Asia 'By 2015, airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions' inspiring and directing all stakeholders for the next stage of growth. Also, they launched their vision for Africa 'By 2015 airtel will be the most loved brand in the daily lives of African people'.
In August 27, 2010, they acquired the 100% interest in Telecom Seychelles Ltd, a telecom operator of Seychelles, for an enterprise value of USD62 million. In September 2011, the company choose Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch 3G Services in India. These partners will plan, design, deploy and maintain a 3G HSPA Network in Bharti Airtel 3G license circles.
In January 2011, the company and State Bank of India (SBI) entered into a Joint Venture (JV) agreement to make available banking services to India's unbanked millions. The newly formed entity, will harness the power of State Bank's strengths and airtel's mobile telephony to add value to the banking and financial services sector and empower millions of financially excluded in the country to enhance their livelihood and quality of life. The Joint Venture will become the Business Correspondent of SBI and offer banking products and services at affordable cost to the citizens in unbanked and other areas.
On 23 April 2013, Bharti Airtel announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with the Warid Group (Warid) to fully acquire Warid Telecom Uganda.
On 2 May 2013, Bharti Airtel Holdings (Singapore) Pte. Limited (Bharti), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, and Warid Group reached an agreement, wherein Bharti decided to acquire the entire remaining 30% equity stake of Warid in Airtel Bangladesh Limited. Earlier, Bharti had acquired 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh in January 2010.
On 17 June 2013, Bharti Airtel announced that it had completed the allotment of 19.98 crore equity shares, representing 5% equity stake in the company, to private equity firm Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE). On 3 May 2013, Bharti and QFE had announced a binding agreement for preferential allotment of Bharti Airtel shares to QFE.
On 4 July 2013, Bharti Airtel announced that it has subscribed to an additional 2% equity share capital in all the four India BWA entities of Qualcomm AP that hold BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. Post the transaction, all the four India BWA entities became subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel. On 24 May 2012, Bharti Airtel and Qualcomm announced an agreement under which Bharti acquired 49% interest in Qualcomm AP's India entities that hold BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.
On 5 November 2013, Bharti Airtel announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Warid Group to fully acquire Warid's Brazzaville operations.
On 10 December 2013, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement to utilise each other's infrastructure i.e. optic fibre, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services.
On 13 February 2014, Bharti Airtel announced that it had acquired 115.0 MHz spectrum for a total consideration of Rs 18530 crore in a spectrum auction conducted by the Government of India.
On 19 February 2014, Bharti Airtel announced that it had crossed the 200 million mobile subscribers mark in India.
On 2 April 2014, Bharti Airtel announced that it had selected IBM to manage the IT infrastructure and applications for its operations in India for five years.
On 9 July 2014, Bharti Airtel announced an agreement with Helios Towers Africa (HTA), the leading independent telecoms towers company in Africa, for the divestment of over 3,100 telecoms towers in four countries across Airtel's African operation to HTA.
On 7 August 2014, Bharti Airtel announced the successful completion of the Offer For Sale (OFS) of 85 million shares of its subsidiary Bharti Infratel Limited for a total consideration of over Rs 2100 crore. Post the transaction, Bharti Airtel's equity holding in Bharti Infratel came down to 74.86%.
On 1 September 2014, Bharti Airtel announced the signing of a definitive agreement with Essar Telecommunications Kenya Limited, which operates under the brand name yuMobile', to acquire over 2.7 million subscribers of yuMobile.
On 24 November 2014, American Tower Corporation and Bharti Airtel Limited announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of over 4,800 of Airtel's communications towers in Nigeria. Airtel will be the anchor tenant on the portfolio under a lease with a ten-year initial term.
On 15 December 2014, Bharti Airtel inked an agreement with IHS Holding Limited for sell and lease back of over 1100 towers from IHS in Zambia and Rwanda under a 10-year renewable contract.
On 26 February 2015, Bharti Airtel offloaded 55 million shares of its subsidiary Bharti Infratel through a secondary share sale in the stock market for a total consideration of Rs 1925 crore. Post the transaction, Bharti Airtel's equity holding in Bharti Infratel was reduced to 71.9%.
On 3 March 2015, Bharti Airtel announced a strategic collaboration with China Mobile to share network and product best practices and technical learnings and work together for standards and products to accelerate commercialisation of LTE and evolving 4.5G/5G technologies. The two companies also decided to work towards shaping up a joint strategy for procurement of devices that include Mifi, smart phones, data cards, LTE CPEs and USIM.
On 26 March 2015, Bharti Airtel announced that it had acquired 111.6 MHz of prime spectrum across 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands for a total consideration of Rs 29130 crore in a spectrum auction conducted by the Government of India.
On 16 May 2015, Bharti Airtel announced that it had received financing commitments of up to USD 2.5 Billion from China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at about nine-years in average maturity.
On 26 August 2015, Bharti Airtel announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% equity stake in Augere Wireless Broadband India Pvt. Ltd., which holds 20 MHz of BWA Spectrum in the telecom circle of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
On 30 November 2015, Bharti Airtel announced that it would invest Rs 60,000 crore over 3 years on a comprehensive network transformation program named Project Leap.
On 13 January 2016, Orange, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators, signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, to acquire Airtel's operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
On 28 January 2016, Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) and Bharti Airtel signed a Definitive Agreement to merge their respective telecommunication subsidiaries in Bangladesh; namely, Robi Axiata Limited (Robi) and Airtel Bangladesh Limited (Airtel).
On 23 February 2016, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited (KMBL) and Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL) signed the Share Subscription and Shareholders Agreement, wherein, KMBL agreed to acquire 9,83,82,022 equity shares aggregating to Rs 98.38 crores in cash, representing 19.90% of the paid-up capital of AMSL.
On 16 March 2016, Bharti Airtel entered into a definitive agreement with Videocon Telecommunications Limited (VTL) to acquire rights to use 2 x 5 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz Band 2013 for six circles, namely, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UP (East), UP (West) and Gujarat from VTL for an aggregate consideration of Rs 4428 crore.
On 8 April 2016, Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary, Bharti Hexacom Limited entered into definitive agreements with Aircel Limited and its subsidiaries Dishnet Wireless Limited and Aircel Cellular Limited (together Aircel) to acquire rights to use 20 megahertz (MHz) 2300 Band 4G TD spectrum for eight circles namely, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, North East, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa at an aggregate consideration of Rs 3500 crore.
Reserve Bank of India on 11 April 2016 granted payments bank license to Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL), a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.
On 5 May 2016, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, and Helios Towers Africa (HTA), an independent telecoms towers company in Africa, announced an agreement for the divestment of approximately 950 telecoms towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from Airtel to HTA.
On 14 June 2016, Singapore Telecommunications and Bharti Airtel announced a strategic alliance to provide seamless high speed data connectivity to global enterprises under one network.
On 6 October 2016, Bharti Airtel announced that it had acquired 173.8 Mhz spectrum across 1800/2100/2300 MHz bands for a total consideration of Rs 14244 crore in a spectrum auction conducted by the Department of Telecom, Government of India.
On 20 December 2016, Bharti Airtel announced that its subsidiary Network i2i Ltd. has entered into a definitive agreement with Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E (Orascom) to acquire Orascom's entire equity stake in Middle East North Africa Company Submarine Cable Systems S.A.E (MENA-SCS). MENA - SCS owns and operates a submarine cable network between India and Europe covering Middle East, with options to extend the network to Africa.
On 12 January 2017, Airtel Payments Bank, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, announced the commencement of national operations with services in all 29 states of India.
On 22 February 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it has, through its subsidiary Bharti Airtel Services, acquired a strategic equity stake in Seynse Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a Financial Technology (FinTech) company.
On 23 March 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Tikona Digital Networks (Tikona) to acquire Tikona's 4G Business including the Broadband Wireless Access ('BWA') spectrum and 350 sites, in five telecom circles.
On 28 March 2017, Bharti Airtel pared its stake in its subsidiary Bharti Infratel by selling over 190 million shares Bharti Infratel representing 10.3% stake to a consortium of funds advised by KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for a total consideration of over Rs 6193.90 crore. The deal was executed at Rs 325 per Bharti Infratel share. Following the closure of this transaction, Bharti Airtel's equity holding in Bharti Infratel was reduced to 61.7%.
On 10 July 2017, Bharti announced plans to invest up to Rs 2000 crore over 3 years under Project Next - its digital innovation program aimed at transforming customer experience across all of its services and touch points. Project Next complements Airtel's massive investments towards building a future ready network under Project Leap.
On 12th October 2017, Bharti Airtel and Tata Group entered into an agreement to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) with Bharti Airtel. As part of the Agreement, Bharti Airtel will absorb Tata CMB's operations across the country in nineteen circles (17 under TTSL and 2 under TTML).
On 16 November 2017, Bharti Airtel announced the launch of two new Android powered 4G smartphones at the price of a feature phone in partnership with Karbonn Mobiles. The launch is part of Airtel's Mera Pehla Smartphone' initiative, which is aimed at enabling every Indian to buy a 4G smartphone and get on to the digital superhighway.
On 12 December 2017, Bharti Airtel and Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, announced that an affiliate of Warburg Pincus will acquire up to 20% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia, the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel, for approximately $350 million. Of this, 15% stake will be sold by Bharti Airtel and the balance by another Bharti entity which holds 5% stake. Upon closing of the transaction, Bharti Airtel will own an 80% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia.
During FY2019, the company has approved the issuance of upto 1,133,591,075 Equity Shares of face value of Rs 5/- each by way of rights issue at a price of Rs 220 per rights equity share (including a premium of Rs 215 per rights equity share) aggregating up to Rs 249,390.04 million on a rights basis to the eligible equity shareholders in the ratio of 19 rights equity shares for every 67 equity shares held by the eligible equity shareholders on the record date, that is, 24 April 2019. The issue was opened on 03 May 2019.
As on 31 March 2019, your Company has 101 subsidiaries, 7 associate companies and 8 joint ventures.
During FY 2018-19, Bharti Airtel Holding (Mauritius) Limited, Airtel Africa Mauritius Limited, Bharti Airtel Overseas (Mauritius) Limited, Airtel Africa Limited, Airtel Mobile Commerce Nigeria B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Congo B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce (Seychelles) B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Madagascar B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Kenya B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Rwanda B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Malawi B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Tchad B.V, Airtel Mobile Commerce Zambia B.V. became Subsidiaries of the company.
During FY 2018-19, Bharti Airtel Burkina Faso Holdings B.V., Africa Towers Services Limited, Tigo Rwanda Limited ceased to be subsidiaries of the company.
During the FY 2019-20, the company has 1,133,591,075 equity shares of face value of Rs 5/- each on 24 May 2019 pursuant to Rights Issue aggregating to Rs 5,667,955,375.
The company also allotted 9,70,668 equity shares of face value of Rs 5/- each on 26 July 2019, pursuant to scheme of arrangement between Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML') and the Company and their respective shareholders and creditors, aggregating to Rs 4,853,340/- to the equity shareholders of TTML.
The company also allotted 10, 10% fully paid-up redeemable, non-participating, noncumulative preference Shares of face value of Rs 100/- each on 26 July 2019, pursuant to scheme of arrangement between Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML') aggregating to Rs 1000/- to the Preference shareholders of TTML.
The company also allotted 487, 10% fully paid-up redeemable, non-participating, non-cumulative preference shares of face value of Rs 100/- each on 26 July 2019, pursuant to composite scheme of arrangement among Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL'), Bharti Hexacom Limited and the Company and their respective shareholders and creditors, aggregating to Rs 48,700 to equity share holders, CCPS holders and OCPS holder of TTSL.
Further in the FY2020,the company also allotted 323,595,505 equity shares of face value of Rs 5/- each on 15 January 2020 pursuant to Qualified Institutions Placement aggregating to Rs 1,617,977,525.
During the year 2020, the scheme of amalgamation between Bharti Digital, a wholly-owned subsidiary company and the Company became effective on May 29, 2019 pursuant to which Bharti Digital has been amalgamated with the Company.
During the year 2020, the Company acquired consumer mobile business of TTML and TTSL under the TTML Scheme and TTSL Scheme, was made effective from July 01, 2019. The scheme of arrangement between the Company and Telesonic, a subsidiary company and their respective shareholders and creditors for the transfer of optical fibre cable business of the Company to Telesonic, has become effective on August 03, 2019.
The Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, vide its order dated May 31, 2019 had sanctioned the Scheme of Amalgamation of Bharti Infratel Limited into and with Indus Towers Limited, which got filed with Registrar of Companies on November 19, 2020 i.e. the effective date of merger. Consequently, the Company's 53.51% shareholding in Bharti Infratel Limited was reduced to 36.73% in Indus Towers Limited (merged entity).
On December 2, 2020 and December 28, 2020, the Company acquired an additional stake of 4.93% and 0.06%, respectively, in the Indus Towers Limited, merged entity, increasing its equity stake from 36.73% to 41.73%. Accordingly, the Company owns 41.73% stake in Indus Towers Limited as on March 31, 2021.
As on March 31, 2021, Company had 108 subsidiaries, 7 associates and 6 joint ventures.
During FY 2020-21, Airtel Limited, Airtel Mobile Commerce DRC B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Gabon B.V., Airtel Mobile Commerce Niger B.V., Airtel Money Kenya Limited, Network i2i (UK) Limited, The Airtel Africa Employee Benefit Trust, Airtel Digital Services Holdings B.V., Airtel Africa Services (UK) Limited became subsidiaries of the Company and Indus Towers Limited (formerly known as Bharti Infratel Limited) and SmarTx Services Limited became Joint Ventures of the Company.
During FY 2020-21, Africa Towers N.V., Indus Towers Limited (formerly known as Bharti Infratel Limited) and SmarTx Services Limited ceased to be subsidiaries and Seynse Technologies Private Limited ceased to be associate of the Company.
Upon approval of Hon'ble National Company Law Tribunal and the Department of Telecommunications, the Composite scheme of arrangement between Bharti Airtel Limited, Bharti Airtel Services Limited, Hughes and HCIL Comtel Private Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors has become effective on January 04, 2022 and VSAT Undertaking of the Company and Bharti Airtel Services Limited stands transferred and vested into Hughes and HCIL Comtel Private Limited, respectively (on a going concern basis) by way of a slump sale with effect from January 04, 2022.
The Board of Directors on April 14, 2021, had approved the Composite Scheme of Arrangement between the Company, Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited, Airtel Digital Limited (ADL), Telesonic Networks Limited and Airtel Limited and their respective shareholders and creditors for amalgamation of Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited, Airtel Digital Limited and Telesonic Networks Limited, wholly-owned subsidiaries with and into Bharti Airtel Limited and demerger of Telecom Business Undertaking of Bharti Airtel Limited and vesting of the same with Airtel Limited, its wholly-owned subsidiary on a going concern basis.
As on March 31, 2022, Company had 108 subsidiaries, 7 associates and 6 joint ventures.
During year 2021-22 Bharti Airtel Ghana Holdings B.V. Limited, Airtel Ghana Limited, Airtel Mobile Commerce (Ghana) Limited ceased to be Joint Venture Companies and Tanzania Towers Limited, Madagascar Towers S.A., Malawi Towers Limited ceased to be subsidiaries of the Company.
During the financial year 2021-22, the Company acquired 33.33% stake in Hughes Communications India Private Limited. Further, it acquired 25% equity shares of Lavelle Networks Private Limited and accordingly, Hughes and Lavelle became associate companies of the Company during the financial year.
During FY 2022-23, the amalgamations of wholly-owned subsidiaries, Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited and Telesonic Networks Limited was made effective from February 1, 2023. Consequently, fiber assets held by Telesonic were allocated into the respective segments based on fiber ordered by various segments from Telesonic. The Company launched 5G network services in October, 2022. It launched digital financial services and a telco-first co-branded Axis Bank credit card. It acquired a strategic stake in Lemnisk (Immensitas Private Limited) under Airtel's Start-Up Accelerator Program.
During the year 2022-23, Mawezi RDC S.A. became joint venture of the Company. Telesonic and Nettle ceased to be the wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company and Aban Green Power Private Limited ceased to be the associate company during 2022-23. |