Singtel entities have jointly offloaded a 1.76 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for about ₹7,128 crore, according to sources.
Bharti Telecom Ltd has bought a 1.63 per cent stake from Singtel entity, Pastel Ltd for ₹6,602 crore through an open market transaction.
According to the bulk deal data available with the NSE, Bharti Telecom purchased 9,62,34,427 shares, amounting to a 1.63 per cent stake in the company.
The shares were acquired at an average price of ₹686 apiece, taking the transaction value to ₹6,601.68 crore.
The shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd were sold by Pastel Ltd.
According to sources, Viridian also offloaded about 1 crore shares.
"Singtel entities have jointly offloaded a total of 1.76 per cent shares on Wednesday. Bharti Telecom has acquired 96 million shares, while the public has acquired around 7 million shares.
"Post this transaction, public shareholding in Bharti Airtel will increase to 44.87 per cent from 44.74 per cent," a source aware of the development said.
Email query sent to Bharti Airtel did not elicit any reply.
At the end of the June quarter, Bharti Telecom Ltd owned a 35.85 per cent stake in the company, the shareholding pattern showed with the exchange.
Bharti Group Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal's family and Singtel are co-investors in Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL).
Last week, Singtel announced that its affiliates have entered into an agreement to transfer 3.33 per cent shares to BTL for an aggregate amount of approximately 2.25 billion Singapore dollars (SGD), leaving direct shareholding of Singtel and Bharti in Airtel at around 10 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.
Singtel, at present, holds a 50.56 per cent stake in Bharti Telecom and the Mittal family holds 49.44 per cent.
Bharti Telecom, at present, holds a 35.85 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel.
Shares of Bharti Airtel were trading 2.36 per cent higher at ₹770.85 apiece on BSE.