Warburg Pincus one of the most successfull VCs that backed Bharti Telcom since the beginning was consistently selling its stake and completely exited with it’s last 4.4% stakesale to Vodafone in Q4-2005. Now it is reliably learnt that SingTel has hired a merchant banker to value its whopping 31% stake in Bharti Televentures.
Vodafone doesn’t really invest for financial gains. It holds 45% in American telco, Verizon and has a substantial say in the company. If Vodafone has ambitions in India, then SingTel could unload its 31% stake in favor of Vodafone making it the second largest shareholder after Mittal family who still hold 46% in Bharti. SingTel’s total investment in Bharti is around $650 million which is now valued at $4.5 Billion.
However, it is not very clear on why SingTel wants to exit India. At one point(2003 and 04) it had lobbied in Delhi to raise the FDI cap in telecom.
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