Bharti Airtel drops, like its calls!

Earlier in July, Bharti Airtel’s deal for sale of telecom towers in Tanzania and Tchad was called off with Helios Towers Africa. This deal was said to be valued at Rs.2100 crore. The news, obviously had affected the stock price adversely but there was some solace in the fact that other deals remained intact.

But today morning before market opening, Bharti announced that the agreement for sale of tower assets in Africa between Bharti Airtel Malawi Holdings B.V. and Eaton Towers (Lilongwe) has lapsed and thus stands terminated. Ditto what had happened with Helios.

This deal was signed with Eaton last year in September for sale of more than 3,500 telecommunications towers in Africa. Eaton was rumoured to have agreed for $1 billion dollars for this and if the money had come through, Bharti was to have reduced its debt, which at end of Q1FY16 stood at Rs.7100 crore. The company, today, did not divulge any financial details of this deal.

The market is disappointed with this fallout and the stock was down intra day by over 3%, going down to Rs.340 levels and it now stands over 2% down at Rs.344. Its 52-week low stands at Rs.315.65.