Google is set to take a 1.2% stake in Indian operator Bharti Airtel via an equity share issue after the move was cleared by the Indian firm’s directors.
As reported by CommsUpdate, Airtel has approved allocating 71.176 million equity shares with a face value of INR5 (USD0.06) to Google on a preferential basis. The issue price will be INR734, which factors in a premium of INR729 per equity share. This amounts to a total investment of INR52.2 billion.
In January 2022, Google stated that it would invest as much as US$1 billion into Bharti Airtel, of which US$700 million would be spent on acquiring a 1.2% stake with the remainder to be used across the ensuing five years to fund commercial agreements around developing 5G use cases and manufacturing cheaper 4G-capable devices.
