Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday announced that the company and its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Ltd have prepaid additional Rs 5,985 crore to the Department of Telecom thereby fully prepaying the high-cost interest liabilities of 8.65per cent pertaining to the 2024 auctions. Airtel’s subsidiary Network i2i Ltd has also voluntarily called and redeemed $1 billion in Perpetual Notes, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Airtel has now prepaid Rs 25,981 crore of high-cost spectrum liabilities for FY25 and has cumulatively prepaid spectrum liabilities of Rs 66,665 crores as on date. The average interest rate on the cumulative liabilities prepaid was approximately 9.74 per cent. Airtel had earlier fully prepaid liabilities that had interest rates of 10 per cent, 9.75 per cent and 9.3 per cent. These prepayments have been made about 7 years ahead of their average residual maturities. Airtel’s move is seen as a step to improve financial prudence, operational efficiency, and its strong capital position and the company has lowered its debt and cost of debt.
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The prepayments have resulted in Airtel clearing Rs 116,405 crore of scheduled installments that would have otherwise been payable on their respective dates over the original tenure of the liabilities, the company informed in the filing.
“Consequent to these payments, Airtel has also lowered its cost of debt on spectrum liabilities to an average of approximately 7.22 per cent on the residual Rs 52,000 crore of spectrum liabilities (excluding AGR liabilities). The residual spectrum liabilities carry a long repayment profile payable in annual installments until FY 2042.,” it said.
Post the redemption of $1 billion in perpetual notes, Airtel will have nearly $479 million of perpetual bonds outstanding, issued in FY21, and slated to mature in FY26.
Shares of Bharti Airtel was down 0.04 per cent at 5:30 pm at a trading price of Rs 1,733.00.
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