India's Bharti Airtel prepays $976 mln to partly clear 2015 spectrum dues

BENGALURU, July 31 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS) said on Monday that it has prepaid 80.24 billion rupees ($976 million) to the Indian governments telecom department to partly clear deferred liabilities for the airwaves it acquired in a 2015 auction.

The instalments had an interest rate of 10%, Indias No. 2 telecom carrier by subscribers said in an exchange filing.

In the auction that took place in March 2015, Bharti Airtel bought spectrum worth 291.29 billion rupees ($3.54 billion), a government release showed, out of which it prepaid 88.15 billion rupees in March 2022.

The company declined to comment on the dues outstanding from the auction.

\“The prepayments are in line with the companys plans of clearing high-cost dues. There is nothing amiss here,\” said Vivekanand Subbaraman, research analyst at brokerage Ambit Capital.

The company paid 155.19 billion rupees in December 2021 to fully repay dues for the spectrum it bought in 2014.

In Indias $19-billion 5G spectrum auction held in July-August last year, Bharti Airtel secured spectrum worth 430.84 billion rupees out of which it has repaid 83.12 billion rupees.

($1 = 82.2475 Indian rupees)