Airtel buys Warid Telecom for $300 mn

Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday it would acquire 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom of Bangladesh for $300 mn (about Rs 1,363 crore).

Warid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group, offers mobile telecom services with a user base of over 2.9 million in Bangladesh.

This is Bharti's first international buyout after it failed to clinch multi-billion dollar deal with South Africa's MTN last year.

"This landmark deal underlines our intent to further expand our operations to international markets . . . we would like to thank the government of India and Bangladesh for their support and encouragement," Mittal said shortly after announcing the deal.

This will be Bharti Airtel's second operation outside India. The company had launched mobile services in Sri Lanka in January last year.

The company said in a statement that the acquisition would be partly by purchase of existing shares held in Warid Telecom International by Dhabi Group for a nominal consideration and balance by way of issue of fresh shares at par.

The new funding will be utilised for expansion of the network both for coverage and capacity and introduction of new products and services.

As a result of this additional $300 million, the overall investment in the company would be around $1 billion.