Airtel to spend Rs 1.17 lakh cr on various businesses with subsidiaries

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has plans to spend about Rs 1.17 lakh crore through business transactions with its subsidiaries like Indus Towers, Nxtra and Bharti Hexacom, according to a regulatory filing. The company will hold an extraordinary general meeting of the members of the company on February 26 to also seek their approval for issuing shares to Google for its about Rs 7,500 crore investment in the company to buy 1.28 per cent stake.

According to the EGM notice, Bharti Airtel will spend Rs 88,000 crore in business with mobile tower company Indus Towers, Rs 15,000 crore for availing services of datacentre firm Nxtra and transaction of up to Rs 14,000 crore with Bharti Hexacom.

Bharti Airtel will invest up to Rs 17,000 crore on transactions with Indus Towers in the next 4 financial years and Rs 20,000 crore in 2025-26, the filing said on Saturday.

"Given the 5G developments globally, it is likely that 5G will soon start to become a reality in India also, slowly in the key cities and then going into the rest of India across the length and breadth of our current network. Therefore, considering the increased requirements of passive infrastructure during massive 5G rollouts, the Company proposing the higher amount of transactions of upto Rs 20,000 crore per annum with Indus Towers for FY 2025-26," the notice said.

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