Bharti Infratel Defers Board Meeting To Decide On Merger With Indus Towers
The next board meeting to consider the merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers will definitely take place before June 24, 2020.
Telecom tower operator Bharti Infratel Ltd. has rescheduled a board meeting to take a final call on the merger with peer Indus Towers Ltd.
“Certain inputs that would have been required by the board for it to deliberate and take a final decision have been delayed, given the current environment," the company said in a regulatory filing. The said board meeting has been "rescheduled for a later date but definitely on or before the current long stop date of June 24, 2020.”
The board of the company was slated to meet on Thursday to take a final decision on the scheme of arrangement between Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel.
On June 4, while intimating about the board meeting, the company had said there can be no certainty on whether the merger will get completed or not, as each party had retained the right to terminate and withdraw the scheme at any point.
Bharti Infratel holds 42% stake in Indus Towers, a three-way joint venture of Vodafone Group Plc (42%) and Vodafone Idea Ltd. (11.5%).
At the company's fourth quarter earnings call in April, Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said the impending merger was an overhang but the matter would be decided one way or the other in the next two months.
"With a fair degree of confidence, I can say that this would be last final extension and within this two-month period... This thing will be decided one way or the other. Hopefully, we should be able to complete the merger," he had said.
Also Read: How A Delayed Bharti Infratel-Indus Towers Merger Is Hurting Vodafone Idea
On Thursday, Bharti Infratel shares fell 8.92% to Rs 211.95 apiece on the NSE while the benchmark Nifty 50 fell 2.12% to end the day at 9,902.00 points.