Vodafone to hike stake in Bharti Group

Global mobile telecommunications major Vodafone Group Plc of the UK is open to the idea of hiking its stake in India's Bharti group from its existing level of 10 per cent. The company, however, has no plans to do so immediately, said Mr Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, while talking to newspersons here on Saturday at the sidelines of the 52nd Convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP).

"We are open to the idea of hiking our stake in Bharti from the existing level of 10 per cent. However, there are no immediate plans to do so," he said. It may be recalled that Vodafone acquired a 10 per cent stake in Bharti last year in an all-cash deal aggregating to 820 million. The acquisition gave Vodafone a footprint in India.