Bharti Airtel paid INR59.85 billion ($697.5 million) to India’s Department of Telecom to fully repay a high-interest loan used for spectrum at auction last year.
The operator detailed in a statement, the high interest liability had a rate of 8.65% and lowers its cost of debt on spectrum liabilities to an average of 7.2%.
Airtel has paid INR259.81 billion in high-cost spectrum liabilities in the 2025 fiscal year and has cumulatively prepaid spectrum liabilities of INR665.65 billion to date. The average interest rate on the cumulative liabilities prepaid was approximately 9.74%.
The prepayments were made about seven years ahead of their average residual maturities.
Airtel’s subsidiary Network i2i Limited voluntarily redeemed $1 billion in USD Perpetual Notes issued in fiscal year 2020.
Airtel will have approximately US$479 million of perpetual notes outstanding, which were issued during fiscal year 2021. These notes can be called in 2026.
