Director raises stake in Airtel to over 15%

Indian Continent Investment, a firm linked to Airtel Africa board member, Shravin Bharti Mittal, has increased its stake in the telco to over 15 per cent.

In a corporate notice filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday on director’s dealing, it was revealed that Indian Continent Investment, bought 94,593,705 units of shares at £0.9604, bringing the value of the transaction to £90.85m (about N100.65bn)

The transaction took place on Tuesday and was conducted under off-market bilateral private arrangements.

As a result of the acquisition, Indian Continent Investment now has over 567,665,566 shares in Airtel Africa, representing 15.1 per cent of the company from its initial 12.58 per cent stake.

That marked a notable increase from its previous position, which stood at 12.58 per cent of the firm.

Indian Continent’s latest acquisition comes just over a month ago when it bought Airtel’s shares worth £57.25m, which bumped its stakes to 12.58 per cent.

The firm registered in Mauritius bought 53,500,000 units of Airtel Africa at £1.07 per unit.

Meanwhile, another investor, Singapore Telecom International Pte Ltd, reduced its shareholding to below three per cent from 3.94 per cent.

On August 15, 2023, Airtel Africa announced the cancellation and extinction of all of its deferred shares of $0.50 nominal value each, which was approved by shareholders at the annual general meeting of the company held on July 4, 2023.

The cancellation and extinction was sanctioned by the High Court of England and Wales.

The capital reduction was aimed at creating additional distributable reserves, which will be available to the company going forward and may be used to facilitate returns to shareholders in the future, whether in the form of dividends, distributions or purchases of the company’s shares.

The company confirms that following the capital reduction, the issued share capital of the company would be 3,758,151,504 ordinary shares of $0.50 nominal value each, carrying one vote each.