Bharti Airtel Prepays Rs 5,985 Crore of High-Cost Spectrum Liabilities
Bharti Airtel, along with its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom, has made a prepaid payment of Rs 5,985 crores to the Department of Telecom, addressing the high-interest liabilities associated with the 2024 auctions, which stand at 8.65 percent.
Moreover, Airtel’s subsidiary, Network i2i Ltd., has opted to redeem $1 billion in Perpetual Notes voluntarily, according to the telecom major.
Emphasizing its focus on financial prudence and operational efficiency, Airtel persistently reduces its high-cost spectrum liabilities, which helps in diminishing its overall debt and the expense related to it.
To date, Airtel has prepaid Rs 25,981 crores in high-cost spectrum liabilities for the ongoing 2025 fiscal year and has cumulatively repaid Rs 66,665 crores in spectrum liabilities.
The average interest rate of these prepaid liabilities was around 9.74 percent. Previously, Airtel had completely settled liabilities with interest rates of 10 percent, 9.75 percent, and 9.3 percent.
These prepayments were accomplished approximately seven years ahead of their average remaining maturities.
Such prepayments enabled Airtel to clear Rs 116,405 crores of scheduled payments that would have been due over the original term of the liabilities.
As a result of these payments, Airtel has also managed to reduce its cost of debt concerning spectrum liabilities to about 7.22 percent on the remaining Rs 52,000 crores of spectrum liabilities (excluding AGR liabilities).
The remaining spectrum liabilities follow a lengthy repayment schedule, which extends until FY 2042.
In addition, Network i2i Limited, a subsidiary of Airtel, has voluntarily redeemed $1 billion in USD Perpetual Notes, which were issued in FY 2020, by exercising a call option.
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Perpetual notes, which lacked a set maturity date, carried an interest rate of 5.65 percent. Following the redemption of the $1 billion in perpetual notes, Airtel will have approximately $479 million in perpetual notes remaining, which were issued during FY 2021 and may be called in FY 2026.