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NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel<\/a> plans to raise as much as $1.5 billion by diluting about a fourth of its stake when it lists the holding company for Africa operations, Bharti Airtel International<\/a> (Netherlands) BV (BAIN BV), in early 2019, said people with knowledge of the matter.\n
The money will help bolster the telco’s efforts to stay competitive in the Indian market, where Bharti has just declared its first quarterly loss in contrast with profits in Africa. Work on the listing has picked up pace and is slated for early next year on the London Stock Exchange<\/a>, leveraging financial improvements in the past few quarters.
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\nAfrica operations have started to make profits about seven years after the Indian telco entered the continent in 2010. “About 25% stake will be diluted… for roughly $1 billion to $1.5 billion,” said one of the people aware of details. “Listing could be anytime early 2019.” At the upper end, this would mean a valuation of $6 billion for the holding company. Bharti Airtel declined to comment. The stock ended 0.9% lower at Rs 404.40 on the BSE on Thursday.
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\nThe Netherlands-based wholly-owned unit of Bharti Airtel is the holding company of telecom operations in 14 African markets — Nigeria, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.
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\nThe holding company’s board authorised the management to initiate non-binding exploratory discussions in mid-February with various banks or intermediaries to evaluate the feasibility of listing its shares.
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\nAirtel’s Africa operations completed their first full year of profitability in March this year.
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\nNet profit amounted to Rs 1,827 crore on revenue of Rs 20,156 crore, marking a turnaround from previous years when losses mounted every quarter, dragging down consolidated numbers and casting a doubt on Bharti’s strategy of expanding into the continent.
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\nROLE REVERSAL <\/strong>
The situation has reversed, with the India operations reporting its first loss in 15 years — RS 652 crore in the January-March quarter — dragged down by the continuing price war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio<\/a> Infocomm. It managed to stave off a loss at the consolidated level thanks to its Africa operations, which recorded a quarterly profit of Rs 698.7 crore, compared with Rs 26.3 crore a year ago. Airtel posted a consolidated profit of Rs 83 crore, down 78% on year. “Looks like Africa growth is sustainable, overall (financial) climate has also improved, commodities have bounced back and currencies have stabilised,” a senior industry<\/a> executive said.
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\nHe added that Africa is likely to ensure Airtel remains profitable at the consolidated level going forward as well amid fears that the tariff war in India is set to continue.
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\nAnalysts said a global listing for the holding company will help Airtel get better value for its Africa operations in contrast with India, where free voice and cheap data tariffs have eroded profits and driven down average revenue per user for most carriers. The fundraising will provide Airtel with “significant ammunition” to fight price wars in India, one of them said.
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\nThe listing could also help Bharti Airtel deleverage its balance sheet, analysts said. Overall debt was Rs 95,000 crore at the end of March.
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\n‘SAME STRATEGY’ <\/strong>
\n“Post listing, Airtel could adopt the same strategy that it has for Bharti Infratel — progressively reducing the stake in the business and investing in the core, India mobile business, which we believe has significant growth potential but will need high network investments in the short term,” said analysts at BNP Paribas in a note to clients.
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\nBharti Airtel has been exploring various avenues to raise funds to strengthen its balance sheet as it takes on competition in India and also invest in networks.
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\nThe company has been steadily diluting stakes in Bharti Infratel to raise funds and recently announced the tower unit’s merger with Indus Towers. It also plans to sell stakes in the merged entity after the deal is closed, which is expected by March 2019.
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Some brokerages such as Sanford C Bernstein<\/a> expect Bharti and Vodafone to sell their combined stakes in the Infratel-Indus merged entity to global investors such as KKR, Providence<\/a>, Brookfield<\/a> and American Tower Corp.<\/a>
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\n“This listing would be a major positive for Bharti Airtel as it would not only help to unlock value, but would also open up multiple avenues for financing growth in Bharti’s Africa operations,” Phillip Capital said in a note to clients. “Apart from this, it would allow Bharti to have options to monetise operations, which would help bring down its overall debt.”
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Bharti Airtel可能出售25%在非洲单位筹集至多15亿美元
这笔钱将帮助支持电信的努力在印度市场保持竞争力,Bharti刚刚宣布首次出现季度亏损在非洲与利润。
新德里:Bharti附近的旅馆计划筹集高达15亿美元的稀释大约四分之一的股份时,它列出了控股公司为非洲业务,Bharti Airtel国际(荷兰)BV(贝恩BV), 2019年初,知情人士表示。这笔钱将帮助支持电信的努力在印度市场保持竞争力,Bharti刚刚宣布首次出现季度亏损在非洲与利润。工作清单已经加快了脚步,并定于明年年初伦敦证券交易所在过去的几个季度,利用金融改进。
非洲业务已开始获利大约七年之后,印度电信在2010年进入欧洲大陆。“大约25%的股权将被稀释…大约10亿到15亿美元,”说的一个人知道的细节。“清单可以在2019年初。“在上端,这意味着控股公司的估值为60亿美元。Bharti Airtel拒绝置评。该股收低0.9%,报404.40 Rs在周四疯牛病。
Bharti Airtel的荷兰独资单位是电信业务的控股公司14个非洲市场——尼日利亚、乍得、刚果(布)、刚果民主共和国、加蓬、马达加斯加、尼日利亚、肯尼亚、马拉维、塞舌尔、坦桑尼亚、乌干达、赞比亚和卢旺达。
控股公司董事会授权管理启动不具约束力的探索性讨论在2月中旬与各种银行和中介机构对上市的可行性进行评估。
Airtel的非洲业务完成了第一个全年的利润今年3月。
净利润达到1827卢比的收入20156卢比,标志着安装每个季度的前几年当跌势,拖累巩固数字和铸造一个怀疑Bharti的策略扩大到大陆。
角色转换
形势发生逆转,印度业务报告15年以来的首次亏损- 652卢比在1季度拖累了持续的价格战引发的条目依赖JioInfocomm。它设法避免损失在合并层面由于其非洲业务,记录一个季度利润698.7卢比,相比之下,一年前26.3卢比。Airtel合并利润为83卢比,同比下降了78%。“看起来像非洲增长是可持续的,整体(金融)气候也改善了,大宗商品反弹,货币稳定,”一位高级行业高管表示。
他还说,非洲可能确保Airtel仍然是未来盈利在合并层面以及由于担心印度的关税战争将继续下去。
分析师表示,全球上市控股公司将帮助非洲Airtel得到更好的价值为其操作与印度形成鲜明对比的是,在免费的语音和廉价的关税已经侵蚀了利润和数据驱动的每用户平均收入,大多数运营商。“重大弹药”的筹款将提供Airtel对抗价格战在印度,其中一个说。
清单还可以帮助Bharti Airtel杠杆化资产负债表,分析师表示。总体债务是95000卢比在3月底。
“同样的策略”
“岗位清单,Airtel可以采用相同的策略,鼓吹,逐步减少股份在核心业务和投资,印度移动业务,我们认为拥有巨大的增长潜力,但需要在短期内高网络投资,”法国巴黎银行(BNP Paribas)的分析师在给客户的报告中说。
Bharti Airtel一直在探索各种途径筹集资金,以加强其资产负债表,它也需要在印度竞争和投资网络。
该公司一直在稳步稀释股份鼓吹他筹集资金,最近宣布与印度塔塔单元的合并。它还计划出售的股份合并后的实体交易关闭后,预计2019年3月。
一些券商如Sanford C Bernstein指望巴蒂电信和沃达丰结合Infratel-Indus合并实体的股份出售给全球投资者,如KKR、普罗维登斯,布鲁克菲尔德和美国塔集团。
“这清单将是一个重大的积极的Bharti Airtel,因为它不仅有助于释放价值,但也将开辟多种渠道融资Bharti的非洲业务的增长,”菲利普资本在给客户的报告中说。“除了这个,它将允许Bharti期权套现业务,这将有助于降低其总体债务。”
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