Vodafone has put its 4.39% indirect stake in India’s Bharti Airtel up for sale in a move which could potentially raise $2 billion for the company.
Vodafone brought an indirect 4.39% stake in Bharti Airtel through Bharti Enterprises Private, and a 5.61% direct stake from private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC. This move gave Vodafone 10% of Airtel for which they paid $1.5 billion. Later on in 2007, Vodafone acquired a controlling stake in rival operator – Hutchison Essar, after which it has sold the direct stake of Bharti Airtel to the Bharti Group for $1.6 billion.
In that sense, the Big Red now wants to get rid of the rest of its Bharti Airtel’s stake, and potential buyer is Singapore’s SingTel, which recently increased stake in the operator. SingTel’s representatives, however, declined to comment.
Vodafone’s Vittorio Colao commented to the Economic Times: “No company will be happy with a small minority stake in another entity. If anybody is interested in buying our stake, we are for it.”
[Via: CellularNews]