Shares of Bharti Airtel Limited were trading 1% higher on 2 December after the company’s subsidiary acquired a stake in Beetel Teletech.

In its regulatory filing, the company said that a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company Bharti Airtel Services Limited has entered into an agreement to acquire 49,45,239 equity shares representing 97.1% stake in Beetel Teletech for a total consideration of Rs 699 crore.

The filing added, “This acquisition is a part of Company’s strategy to enable indigenization initiatives within its own ecosystem of telecom products in line with the Government’s policy of ‘Make In India’; and add distribution and service capabilities (including system integration) largely for company’s enterprise business.“

Furthermore, The company has a 49% stake in Beetel Teletech in a Joint Venture that has two manufacturing facilities that produce telecom and networking products.

In October 2022, the company launched its 5G network that surpassed the 1 million customers mark in less than 30 days of its commercial launch. The company now has a strong coverage of thousands of cities and continues to add more cities daily to its 5G network, demonstrating an aggressive approach to geographic expansion. The company has a strong presence in 17 countries and more than 500 million active users.

At 3:30 pm, the shares of Bharti Airtel closed 0.96% higher at Rs 1,022.75 on NSE.