BBN Bureau
Rs24,334 cr spectrum liabilities cleared in past 4 months
NEW DELHI/March 25-2022: Bharti Airtel, India’s leading digital communications solutions provider, today said it has paid Rs8,815 crore to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards part prepayment of deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in the 2015 auction.
The prepayment is for instalments due in the financial year 2016-17 (FY27) and FY28. Over the last four months, Airtel has cleared Rs24,334 crore of its deferred spectrum liabilities much ahead of scheduled maturities. These liabilities carried an interest rate of 10 per cent and have been paid off through a combination of strong free cash generated by business, equity proceeds and significantly lower cost debt of similar tenor.
“Airtel continues to focus on financial flexibility via its capital structure including optimising cost of financing and capitalising on all opportunities of significant interest saves like this prepayment,” an official statement from the company said.
Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 480 million (48 crore) customers in 16 countries across South Asia and Africa.
The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people.
