India's Airtel subsidiary acquires additional 6.3% stake in Robi

Bharti International (Singapore), a subsidiary of India’s Bharti Airtel, has acquired an additional 6.3 percent stake in Bangladesh’s second largest mobile operator Robi Axiata, in a cash deal. However, the financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

The Indian company acquired the stake from NTT DoCoMo and its group entities. Bharti International currently owns a 25 percent stake in Robi Axiata, and following this deal, its stake in Robi Axiata has risen to 31.3 percent, Bharti Airtel said in an exchange filing.

Robi is a subsidiary company of Axiata Investments, which is also the subsidiary of the leading Asian telecom giant, Axiata Group, based in Malaysia.

Earlier in 2010, Airtel had acquired 70 percent stake in Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom, and picked up the remaining 30 percent stake in Warid Telecom later in 2013.

In 2016, Bharti Airtel and Robi Axiata announced the merger of its operations in Bangladesh, with Axiata holding 68.7 percent controlling stake in the combined entity. Bharti Airtel was holding a 25 percent and the rest 6.3 percent by NTT DoCoMo.

(Source: Times of India)