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Warburg sells $208 m stake in Bharti

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Denny Thomas



MUMBAI: Global private equity fund Warburg Pincus sold a 3.35 percent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., India's No. 2 mobile services firm, in a deal worth Rs 960 crore ($208 million).

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Bharti's shares, up by around a quarter in the last seven weeks, extended an early fall to trade as much as 7.6 percent lower at 146.50 rupees in a marginally lower market.



Brentwood Investment Holdings Ltd., a unit of New York-based Warburg Pincus, sold 62 million shares, according to a statement issued to stock exchanges.

The statement did not reveal the price, but trade data indicated a sale of 62 million shares went through at 155 rupees per share in one deal early on Friday. A source familiar with the transaction also confirmed the price.

Warburg will be left with 15.17 percent of Bharti, in which Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. owns some 28 percent.



"This transaction, which has resulted in a significant increase in the free float, would result in increasing liquidity in the future," Akhil Gupta, joint managing director of Bharti, told Reuters.

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Dealers said a foreign fund, which had recently registered to do business in India and a clutch of other foreign investors were the likely buyers. The same funds had picked up about 1.5 million shares on Thursday, they added.

Industry sources said Warburg had acquired the 18.52 percent stake in Bharti over a period of time at a total cost of about $300 million. Since the start of 2003, Bharti shares have expanded by nearly seven times.

Dealers attributed Bharti's share price fall on Friday to a report in the Economic Times which said government plans to hike foreign direct investment in telecoms to 74 percent could come along with riders.

Bharti, one of the earliest entrants in India's flourishing mobile sector, announced plans last month to sell 200 million shares in a sponsored foreign issue.



Operating in the world's fastest-growing wireless market, Bharti had about 8 million mobile customers at the end of July.

(Additional reporting by Shailendra Bhatnagar in New Delhi)

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