Bharti Airtel to buy remaining 30 per cent stake in Warid Bangladesh

Bharti Airtel, India's largest private telecom operator, will acquire 30 per cent stake in Bangladesh's Warid Telecom to make it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the firm.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, it said: "Bharti Airtel Holdings (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Warid Group have reached an agreement, wherein, Bharti will acquire 30 per cent equity stake of Warid in Airtel Bangladesh Ltd."

With this, Bharti Airtel will own 100 per cent of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. Bharti had acquired 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom Bangladesh - a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group - in January 2010.

In a consecutive quarterly decline in net profits for 13th time, Bharti Airtel's net profit almost halved to Rs 508.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 from Rs 1,005.9 core in the year-ago period.

The consolidated income of the telecom major increased by 9.18 per cent at Rs 20,460.4 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 18,738.8 crore it registered in corresponding period of FY12.

With inputs from PTI