CCI approves Airtel's buyout of Warburg Pincus affiliate's stake in DTH arm
Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of an additional 20% stake in its direct-to-home (DTH) arm Bharti Telemedia from an affiliate of New York-headquartered private equity firm Warburg Pincus, people with knowledge of the matter told ET.
The competition watchdog is expected to publish a detailed public order on the transaction soon, one of the sources said.
While the transaction dates to 2021, the CCI in August 2023 slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore on Airtel for concluding the deal without informing it.
In October 2023, the telecom company sought the competition watchdog’s approval for the transaction that also involved Lion Meadow Investment, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, acquiring a stake in Bharti Airtel, one of the persons cited above said. The CCI approved the transaction recently, the person added.
In its application to the CCI, Airtel said the transaction is an intra-group shareholding consolidation and does not constitute any change in market dynamics, the entry or exit of any player, or a change in the management of the business operations of BTL.
The application identified India's upstream market for digital set-top box manufacturing and sale and the downstream market for aggregating and distributing TV channels through DTH services as relevant markets for the CCI’s review.
This is the second major deal to be completed in the DTH sector, following Tata Sons’ acquisition of Singaporean investment firm Temasek's 10% holding in Tata Play for $100 million at a
