SoftBank May Buy Stake In Bharti Airtel's Telecom Biz

SoftBank is in preliminary level discussion with Bharti Airtel for picking up a stake either directly or indirectly in its telecom business and related assets.

The Sources said, the talks are wide-ranging and could include taking a stake in Bharti Airtel directly or through the holding company. It could also take the shape of making possible investments in some of its other telecom infrastructure assets and services which Bharti is looking at monetising. SoftBank prefers investments in start-ups or during the pre-initial public offering (IPO) stage.

On the record, SoftBank already has a close relation with the Mittals, the founders of Bharti, which includes joint ventures (JVs) for making investments in social media, gaming, e-commerce, and renewable power.Softbank was also one among the six marquee investors which took equity in Airtel Africa, from which the company raised $1.25 billion to reduce the group’s overall gearing and then went in for an IPO.

SoftBank has been an important player in telecom in Japan. Now Bharti is looking at monetising its assets to reduce its debt, so that it can take on Reliance Jio in customer acquisitions. Softbank has already invested in Hike, India’s home-grown messaging app, which was founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal and is part of Bharti Enterprises. The venture has raised over $261 million from SoftBank, Tencent, and Tiger Global, among others.