Bharti Airtel prepays Rs 5,985 crore of high-cost spectrum liabilities and voluntarily redeems USD 1 billion in perpetual debt securities

New Delhi [India], March 26 (ANI): Telecom company Bharti Airtel Ltd 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 8.65 per cent pertaining to the 2024 auctions, the company said in a release on Wednesday.

Airtel's subsidiary Network i2i Ltd. has also voluntarily called and redeemed USD 1 billion in Perpetual Notes, the company. said.

Airtel continues to prepay its high-cost spectrum liabilities, lowering its debt and cost of debt, underscoring its commitment to financial prudence, operational efficiency, and its strong capital position, the company said.

The release added that the Airtel has now prepaid Rs. 25,981 crores of high-cost spectrum liabilities for the current 2025 fiscal year 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, the company said.

The prepayments have resulted in Airtel clearing Rs 116,405 crores of scheduled instalments that would have otherwise been payable on their respective dates over the original tenure of the liabilities, as per the release.

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 crores of spectrum liabilities (excluding AGR liabilities). The residual spectrum liabilities carry a long repayment profile payable in annual instalments until FY 2042.

Additionally, Airtel's subsidiary Network i2i Limited has voluntarily exercised a call option and redeemed USD 1 billion in USD Perpetual Notes issued in FY 2020.

"Perpetual notes otherwise had no contracted maturity and carried an interest rate of 5.65 per cent. Post the redemption of USD 1 billion in perpetual notes, Airtel will have approximately USD 479 million of perpetual notes outstanding, which were issued during FY 2021. These notes can be called in FY 2026," the company added in the release. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)