Airtel prepays Rs 8,024 cr to clear high-cost deferred liabilities for spectrum acquired in 2015

Telecom firm Bharti Airtel Ltd on Monday said that it has prepaid Rs 8,024 crore to the Department of Telecom towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auction of year 2015.

The said instalments had an interest rate of 10% and have been prepaid by Airtel, leveraging much lower cost financing available to it. "Airtel continues to enjoy access to a well-diversified sources of capital / financing, allowing it to have enhanced financial flexibility in its capital structure including optimised cost of financing using all opportunities for significant interest savings, like this prepayment," said the telco.

At 1355 hours, Bharti Airtel's scrip on BSE was trading 0.7% lower at Rs 888.5.

Airtel is set to announce its Q1 results on August 3. The country's second largest telecom provider rolled out 5G services in India in October 2022.

Bharti Airtel had prepaid Rs 8,815 crore in March 2022 to clear dues of the airwaves it bought in 2015 and Rs 15,519 crore in December 2021 to fully repay dues for spectrum bought in 2014.

In India's $19-billion 5G spectrum auction held in July-August last year, Bharti Airtel secured spectrum worth Rs 43,084 crore out of which it has repaid Rs 8,312 billion rupees.

Airtel Africa on Thursday reported a loss of $151 million (about Rs 1,237 crore) for June quarter 2023-24.

In the year-ago period, it logged a profit of $178 million, a company statement said.