Bharti Airtel raise Rs. 5,246.85 crore in first tranche of Rights Issue

In its recently concluded first tranche of rights issue, Bharti Airtel has managed to raise Rs. 5,246.85 crore. Notably, the rights issue started on 5th October, and had been oversubscribed 1.44 times.

Bharti Airtel's Rights Issue Performs Well

In a regulatory filing, the telco said, "...the special committee of directors for rights issue, at its meeting held today...approved the allotment of 392,287,662 rights equity shares to the eligible applicants, with Rs. 133.75 paid on application and balance to be paid in two more additional calls...".

This means that the telco has raised about Rs. 5,246.85 crore from the first call of the rights issue. As has been mentioned by the telco, it will call for two more times, to request payments from the applicants. This also gives Airtel a bit of cash advantage; it now has two more cash injections lined up in case it needs money. And given the current trend in the telecom sector, the telcos will need money soon.

This has also increased the paid up equity share capital with the telco. In the same filing, th Bharti Airtel added, "...the paid-up equity share capital of the company has increased from Rs. 27,460.14 million to Rs. 27,950.49 million consisting of 5,492,027,268 fully paid-up equity shares of Rs. 5 each and 392,287,662 party paid-up shares equity shares (Rs. 1.25 party paid-up)".

The rights issue, first announced on 29th August after a board meeting, opened on 5th October. The telco had set the initial price at Rs. 535 per share for the rights issue. After the first call, the telco has Rs. 401.25 per share to call for from the applicants. Therefore, the telco will get about Rs. 15,740.54 crore from the subsequent calls of the issue.