Bharti Airtel up 2% as Carlyle Grp to buy 25% stake in Co’s Data Centre biz

Bharti Airtel shares rose as much as 2.56 per cent to Rs 574 on the BSE on Wednesday after the Carlyle Group announced it will invest $235 million for approximately 25 per cent stake in Nxtra Data Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel engaged in the data centre business.

The post-money enterprise valuation of Nxtra is approximately $1.2 billion and Carlyle will hold a stake of approximately 25% in the business upon completion of the transaction, with Airtel continuing to hold the remaining stake of approximately 75%, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

“Rapid digitisation has opened up a massive growth opportunity for data centres in India and we plan to accelerate our investments to become a major player in this segment. We are delighted to have Carlyle as a strategic partner in this exciting journey, particularly given their experience in this industry, and look forward to working with them,” said Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel.