Bharti Airtel and its unit Bharti Hexacom have prepaid Rs. 5,985 billion to the government, fully clearing “high-cost” liabilities from the 2024 spectrum auctions, the telecom company said on Wednesday.
Airtel, the country’s no.2 telecom firm by user base, has been prepaying high-cost spectrum dues that it and other Indian telecom operators owe the government, following years of high-stakes auctions and aggressive bidding for airwaves.
The latest payment has trimmed Airtel’s debt pile related to spectrum to Rs. 52,000 crore, bringing down the cost of debt to 7.22 percent, the company said.
Airtel’s early payments now total Rs. 66,665 crore, it said, adding that it has settled liabilities with interest rates of 10 percent, 9.75 percent, and 9.3 percent about seven years before their average maturity dates.
The latest payment was made for liabilities that carried an interest rate of 8.65 percent, Airtel said, without specifying when the debt was previously due.
Peer Vodafone Idea owes about Rs. 1,42,000 crore in spectrum dues as of September 2024.
Another Airtel subsidiary, Network i2i, also redeemed $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,556 crore) in perpetual debt securities – a debt instrument with no fixed maturity date – reducing the company’s outstanding perpetual notes to $479 million (roughly Rs. 4,102 crore), the telecom company said.
Airtel’s shares closed 0.5 percent higher on Wednesday after the announcement.
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