Indian Continent Investment Limited Acquires £57.25 Million in Airtel Africa

Indian Continent Investment Limited has acquired an additional £57.25 million worth of shares in Airtel Africa.

In a corporate notice that was filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday, the Mauritius-based company (Indian Continent Investment) has bought 53,500,000 units of Airtel Africa at £1.07 per unit.

In the notice filed with the NGX on Thursday, Indian Continent Investment Limited is affiliated with Shravin Bharti Mittal, the Managing Director of Bharti Global Ltd. (Bharti family investment arm). It’s reported that Bharti Airtel is the largest shareholder of Airtel Africa.

It was also announced that the deal took place on Monday on the London Stock Exchange, where Airtel Africa has its shares listed.

Another separate notice showed that Indian Continent Investment Limited increased its shareholding to 12.58% from 11.02%. Currently, it holds 473,071,861 shares of the company indirectly.

The report also shows that Singapore Telecom International Pte Ltd. has reduced its shareholding by 3% from the previous 3.94%. This followed the disposal of part of its shareholding on Monday.

The PUNCH reports that on August 15, 2023, Airtel Africa announced the cancellation and extinction of all of its deferred shares of $0.50 nominal value each, which were approved by shareholders during the annual general meeting of the company held on  July 4, 2023. The cancellation and extinction were sanctioned by the High Court of England and Wales.

The reduction in capital creates an additional distributable reserve that will be available to the company moving forward, and this can also be used to facilitate returns to shareholders in the future, whether in the form of distributions, dividends, or purchases of the company’s shares.

Airtel Africa confirmed that following the capital reduction, the issued share capital of the company will be 3,758,151,504 ordinary shares of $0.50 nominal value each, carrying one vote each.