Bharti Airtel confirms that the FDI in the company is still under 49%

Bharti Airtel confirms that the FDI in the company is still under 49%

This has reference to certain reports in the media and related enquiries. Bharti Airtel would like to clarify that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the company is within the limit of 49%. The current FDI in Bharti Airtel stands at 47.92%. The company has also received FIPB approval for having a composite foreign holding upto 74% as envisaged in Press Note 5. Bharti’s composite foreign holding is currently at 73.70%. Accordingly, Bharti is in compliance with both the previous policy and the policy as envisaged under Press Note 5.

Given that there are serious differences on the implementation of the conditions provided under Press Note 5, Bharti Airtel would like to appeal to the Government to have quick and equitable resolution to the issue keeping in consideration the necessity for having a level playing field amongst all the industry players. In the event such attempts fail, a suspension or revocation of Press Note 5 may be the best option.

About Bharti Airtel Limited: Bharti Airtel Limited is one of India’s leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with an aggregate of 27.24 million customers as of end of August‘06, consisting of 25.65 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been rated among 10 best performing companies in the world in the BusinessWeek IT 100 list.

Bharti Airtel is structured into three strategic business units – Mobile services, Broadband & Telephone (B&T) services and Enterprise services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The B&T business provides broadband & telephone services in 92 cities. The Enterprise services provides end to end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.

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