'Discussion stage only': Airtel clarifies on 'Tata, Bharti Groups near Mega DTH Merger' report

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday issued a clarification over a news report titled "Tata, Bharti Groups near Mega DTH Merger", mentioning that the matter is at a discussion stage only. "We wish to submit that Bharti Airtel Limited ('Airtel') and TATA Group are in bilateral discussions to explore a potential transaction to achieve a combination of TATA Group's Direct To Home ('DTH') business housed under Tata Play Limited, with Bharti Telemedia Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel, in a structure acceptable to all parties. The above is at a discussion stage only," the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led telecom company stated in an exchange filing.

Airtel has also partnered with Ericsson 5G Core technology. "The collaboration will enable Airtel to seamlessly transition to a commercially live, full-scale 5G Standalone network over time, bringing the high-end capabilities of 5G to their customers," the telco said in a separate filing. Ericsson is a longstanding Airtel connectivity partner with a close relationship spanning over 25 years.

"As part of this agreement, Ericsson will deploy its Signaling Controller solution within Bharti Airtel's network. Furthermore, Ericsson's 5G Standalone-enabled Charging and Policy solution will be introduced," the company also said.

On the stock-specific front, Airtel shares snapped their six-session losing run on Tuesday to settle 2.55 per cent higher at Rs 1,641.60. On BSE, around 1.94 lakh shares changed hands. The figure was lower than the two-week average volume of 4.60 lakh shares. Turnover on the counter came at Rs 31.78 crore, commanding a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 9,36,048.43 crore.

Technically, the counter traded higher than the 5-day, 50-, 100-, 150-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs) but lower than the 10-day, 20-day and 30-day SMAs. The counter's 14-day relative strength index (RSI) came at 48.56. A level below 30 is defined as oversold while a value above 70 is considered overbought.

The stock has a price-to-equity (P/E) ratio of 62.44 against a price-to-book (P/B) value of 9.66. Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 26.29 with a return on equity (RoE) of 15.47.

As of December 2024, promoters held a 53.11 per cent stake in the company.

Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks will remain closed today due to 'Mahashivratri'. The domestic indices would resume action on Thursday.