SC upholds Bharti Telecom’s share capital reduction

NEW DELHI: (Mar 10) The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a batch of appeals filed by minority shareholders of Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), upholding the company’s decision to reduce its share capital and ease out individual investors.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran said that the valuation of shares is an expert exercise and that the company had followed the due process of law under the Companies Act provision.

The matter pertains to a 2018 decision by Bharti Telecom, a closely-held company and promoter of Bharti Airtel Limited (BAL), to reduce its share capital by cancelling shares held by minority investors (representing about 1.09 per cent of the total shareholding).