Bharti Airtel, a major telecom company in India said that it is going to take up a 9% stake in Avaada CleanTN Project Private Limited. Avaada Clean TN Project is a special purpose vehicle formed for the purpose of owning and operating the Captive Power Plant, said Airtel in a BSE listing on Wednesday. The cost of acquisition of the same for Bharti Airtel will be Rs 7,88,51,500. The telco will be taking up an aggregate of 7,885,150 equity shares in the company for Rs 10 each and would own a 9.012% stake.
Bharti Airtel Focusing on Green Power Supply
Bharti Airtel is focusing on building a large capacity for green power supply. The company took a strategic stake in Avaada which is engaged in commission, setting up, operating and generating of power or electricity supply through renewable sources such as hydro, biomass, geothermal, wind, co-generation, and more. The telco’s shares are 1.22% up from the previous close price, trading at Rs 700 (at the time of writing). On Thursday, stocks of other telecom companies including Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) are up too. Airtel is investing heavily in green energy supply. Earlier this year, the telco’s data center subsidiary, Nxtra had commissioned a 21MW solar power unit in Maharashtra. It is worth noting that the captive power plant, which is spread over 80 acres was set up by Airtel in partnership with Avaada. Thus the companies have been working together for a long time and this acquisition from Airtel makes more sense. Bharti Airtel is committed to reducing absolute scope 1 and scope 2 Green House Gas (GHG) emissions across its operations by 50.2% by the financial year (FY) 2031. Airtel is counting FY21 as the base year. In addition to this, Airtel is also committed to reducing the scope 3 GHG emissions by 42% in the same time period. This acquisition will certainly help Airtel in reaching its commitment.