Shareholders of Bharti Airtel have given it the green light to raise up to Rs 21,000 crore at the company’s extraordinary general meeting held on January 3. The move will allow the telco to raise Rs 14,000 crore in equity, according to a regulatory filing by the company, and an additional Rs 7,000 crore in debt, according to news agency PTI. This will help the company to pay outstanding dues. In November 2019, Bharti Airtel was reportedly looking to raise around Rs 21,000 crore so that it could pay the Supreme Court-directed Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues since its then cash flows were not large enough to pay the dues in full in a short period of time. The AGR dues for all telcos amount to Rs 92,640 crore. According to the regulatory filling dated January 3, the proposal for issuance of securities for amount up to $2 billion (Rs 14,000 crore) garnered 99.99% votes in favour of the resolution. Likewise, the second resolution for issuance of foreign currency convertible bonds and unsecured/secured redeemable non-convertible debentures along with or without warrants, also received 99.99% votes in favour. The company had reported a net loss of Rs 23,045 crore in Q2FY20 — a massive increase from the Rs 2,866 crore net loss in Q1FY20, and had said that the Supreme Court’s verdict on AGR had “significant financial implications”.
