08 April 2024

Bharti Airtel subsidiary Bharti Hexacom is set to open for IPO (Initial Public Offer) on 3 April 2024.

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is set to sell a 15% stake in the company to the public. At present, TCIL owns a 30% stake in the company and the remaining stake is with Bharti Airtel. Post IPO, a 15% stake of TCIL will be sold to the public, and TCIL’s stake will come down to 15% from the current 30%, while Bharti Airtel’s stake will remain unchanged.

Since it is an offer for sale (OFS) from TCIL, no fresh proceeds will be generated for the company. TCIL would only be generating money from the stake sale. Bharti Hexacom has said in a late exchange filing that bidding for anchor investors would start a day early on 2 April 2024. The IPO will start on 3 April and finish on 5 April 2024.

Bharti Hexacom operates its business in the northeast states of India as well as Rajasthan. The company has access to the mid-band 5G spectrum with which it is already serving customers with 5G non-standalone (NSA) services. The ARPU of Bharti Hexacom jumped from Rs135 in FY21 to Rs195 in the first six months of September 2023.

Hexacom has 29.1 million customers, and with Airtel focusing more on investing in rural areas, the subscriber count should go up significantly. In the first half of FY24, total mobile towers under Bharti Hexacom jumped from 19,965 to 23,748. The company’s profits dropped from Rs 195 crore to Rs 69 crore YoY in the first half of FY24.