U.S. tech giant Google will invest up to $1 billion in Airtel in a partnership that will focus on affordable smartphones and create “5G use cases” unique to India, the telecom company said on Friday.

The investment includes a $700 million equity investment in Airtel at Rs 734 per share and up to $300 million to implement commercial agreements, including investments to expand Airtel’s offerings, the companies said.

The share issue, which is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, comes a few months after Airtel raised Rs 21,000 crore by selling shares to existing shareholders.

The two companies will also focus on “shaping and growing India’s cloud ecosystem”.

Airtel shares rose 0.54% to Rs 711 on the news. Less than two years ago, Google announced plans to inject $10 billion into India over five to seven years through equity deals and partnerships through its digital fund.

“Airtel and Google share a vision to increase India’s digital dividend through innovative products. With our future-ready network, digital platform, last-mile distribution and payment ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase India’s digital ecosystem The depth and breadth of the system,” Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.

“Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of the Google for India Digital Fund’s efforts to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies on their digital transformation journey,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. .” and the alphabet.

Airtel shares rose 0.54% to Rs 711 on the news. Less than two years ago, Google announced plans to inject $10 billion into India over five to seven years through equity deals and partnerships through its digital fund.

Airtel shares rose 0.54% to Rs 711 on the news. Less than two years ago, Google announced plans to inject $10 billion into India over five to seven years through equity deals and partnerships through its digital fund.

Complete News Source : Business Standard