- SingTel announced the sale of a 0.8% stake in Bharti Airtel (BHARTI IN) to GQG Partners (GQG AU). This brings SingTel’s effective stake in Bharti to 29.0% (from 29.8% at end-2023).
S$950m raised from sale of 0.8% stake in Bharti Airtel
- - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
- We view the stake sale positively given Bharti’s elevated valuation multiples (34x FY25F P/E, according to Bloomberg consensus) and strong share price performance (+58% over the past 12 months).
More value set to be unlocked in the medium term
- - Read this at SGinvestors.io -
- divestment and redevelopment of Comcentre.
- With the 0.8% Bharti stake sale completed, this leaves ~S$3bn in value remaining to be unlocked.
- Over the past year, SingTel has cumulatively unlocked ~S$1.6bn in capital from divestments;
- sale of 0.8% stake in Bharti Airtel (~S$950m),
- regional data centre stake sale (~S$1.1bn over three years, we assume ~S$100m has been recorded since the announcement in Sep 2023),
- sale of cybersecurity subsidiary Trustwave (~S$275m), and
- sale of 3.9% direct stake in Airtel Africa (~S$250m).
Possibility of gearing reduction and higher shareholder returns
- Read more at SGinvestors.io.
