Vodafone evinces interest to hiking stake in Bharti group

The world’s largest telecom player Vodafone has plans to increase its 10 per cent equity stake in the country’s largest private sector telecom operator Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL), as reported by the Business Standard on Monday. Mr. Arun Sarin, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Plc said that the company however had no immediate plans of doing so. He was talking to newspersons on Saturday, at the sidelines of the 52nd Convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP).
“We are open to the idea of hiking our stake in Bharti from the existing level of 10 per cent. Let us see…even if we are willing to buy shares, someone else should also be willing to sell,” Sarin was quoted as saying, according to the report.‿ However, there are no immediate plans to do so.”
He also added that the company did not have any plans of picking up stakes in any other Indian telecom firm.‿ Once we are married to a company, we stay with it;‿ he said.
Last October, the U.K. based company had acquired a 10 per cent equity stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures (BTVL) for Rs. 6,700 crore (approx $1.5 billion), as part of a long-term strategic investment to gain a foothold in India. This 10 percent included the entire 5.65 percent stake of private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Post-acquisition, Warburg Pincus had completely exited its position in Bharti.
According to Mr. Sarin, the share from emerging markets contributing to Vodafone’s global revenue were slated to double, from the current 15 percent to 30 percent, in the coming five years. He added that Vodafone was at present registering an annual growth of 5 to 6 percent and hoped that Airtel’s share of India’s mobile telecom market would show an increase in the upcoming months.
To contribute to the growth in emerging markets, Vodafone has invested in mobile telecom companies in India, South Africa, China, Turkey, Czech Republic and Romania.
Sarin added that the company’s aim was to significantly increase their coverage within the next few years in India, which would require a huge amount of capital, and to double the coverage from the present 40 percent of customer base, to 80 percent.