SingTel sells 0.8% stake in India's Bharti Airtel to GQG Partners for $711 million

Singapore Telecommunications on Thursday said it has sold a 0.8 per cent  stake in India's Bharti Airtel for S$950 million (nearly $711 million) to U.S. investment firm GQG Partners.

The deal marks the latest effort by Southeast Asia's largest telcom operator to recycle capital, bringing the total to S$8 billion since its strategic reset in 2021.

SingTel, through its unit Pastel, sold 49 million or 0.8 per cent of the outstanding shares in Airtel, also effectively reducing its stake in Airtel by 0.8 percentage points.

Post the transaction, SingTel will hold an effective stake of 29 per cent in Airtel, which would be valued at around S$33 billion.

The telco has been selling shares in Airtel for a while, including a direct 3.3 per cent stake sale for S$2.54 billion in 2022.

The group said it expects to record a gain of S$700 million from the stake sale, without elaborating on the difference with the divestment price.

SingTel has been making continuous efforts to improve shareholder returns, such as raising dividend to between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of underlying net profit in November last year.

"Looks like a good move in terms of timing with Bharti Airtel share price up 56 per cent in one year even exceeding consensus street target price of 1,175 rupees," said Sachin Mittal, analyst at DBS.

"Singtel’s market cap is around only S$39 billion while the value of its stake in Bharti alone is S$33 billion. This also signals the true value of assets held by Singtel as market is under-valuing Singtel’s stock price by giving over 45 per cent holding company discount," Mittal added.

SingTel's finance chief, Arthur Lang, also indicated that the current share price of the company "does not reflect the intrinsic value or growth potential of the group."

SingTel shares are currently trading 0.4 per cent higher at S$2.35 apiece. Airtel shares are up 1.1 per cent at 1,207.4 rupees per share.

Airtel and GQG Partners did not immediately reply to Reuters' request for comments.

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