Bharti Group increases stake in Airtel

Bharti Group has raised its stake in India’s top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel to over 50% by buying back 4.99% direct stake from UK’s Vodafone at an estimated $1.4 billion dollar.

After the Hutch-Vodafone deal, Vodafone, had agreed to sell 5.6% stake in Bharti Airtel back to a Bharti Group company for $1.6 billion by November 2008. Vodafone now has a 5.01% stake in Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, Bharti has awarded a $2 billion contract to Ericsson for expanding its telecom network. Ericsson will design, plan, deploy and manage Bharti’s GSM network across 15 circles and its pre-paid platform across 23 circles in the country.