Airtel prepays Rs 8,024 cr to settle its 2015 spectrum liabilities

Airtel stated "installments had an interest rate of 10% and have been prepaid by Airtel, leveraging much lower cost financing available to it."

Telecommunications service provider Bharti Airtel, today said that it has prepaid Rs. 8,024 crores to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of year 2015.

In order to take advantage of Airtel's lower-cost financing options, the decision to make a sizable prepayment on the spectrum acquisition liabilities was made. The corporation decided to take advantage of the chance for prepayment because the installments had a 10% interest rate. The choice made by Airtel is in line with its plan to streamline its capital structure and cut back on interest costs.

Airtel stated "installments had an interest rate of 10% and have been prepaid by Airtel, leveraging much lower cost financing available to it. Airtel continues to enjoy access to a well-diversified sources of capital / financing, allowing it to have enhanced financial flexibility in its capital structure including optimized cost of financing using all opportunities for significant interest savings, like this prepayment."

Bharti Airtel recently disclosed in a regulatory filing that they had increased their shareholding in Bengaluru-based startup Lavelle Networks, which specialises in software-defined networking, by 20.6 percent. With this transaction, Airtel has increased its overall ownership of the startup to 45.6 percent. In the beginning, in January 2022, the telecom operator had purchased a 25% stock position in Lavelle Networks.