Bharti Infratel Falls 10% On Postponement Of Board Meeting On Indus Merger

Shares of Bharti Infratel fell as much as 10 percent on Thursday to Rs 207.10 after the company, in a stock exchange filing, said that the board meeting to take the final decision on merger with Indus Towers, has been rescheduled for a later date.

"The Board of the Company was scheduled to meet today to take a final decision on the Scheme of arrangement between Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel. Certain inputs that would have been required by the Board for it to deliberate and take a final decision have been delayed given the current environment. In view of the same, the said Board meeting has been rescheduled for a later date but definitely on or before the current long stop date of 24th June 2020," the company said in its statement on Thursday.

After having extended the deadline by five times, the company's board was set to meet on 11 June. Previously, in the meeting held on 23 April, Bharti Infratel's board according to a statement "had extended the long stop date for the Scheme till 24th June, 2020, with each party retaining the right to terminate and withdraw the Scheme at any point. Accordingly, there can be no certainty whether the merger will get completed or not."

Its big-ticket merger deal with Indus Towers that will pave the way for creating one of the world's biggest telecom tower companies with 1,69,000 towers.

The mega towers merger deal had received foreign direct investment (FDI) nod in February but two more steps are left before the deal can be closed- approval from National Company Law Tribunal-Chandigarh and the Registrar of Companies registration.