| Sunil Bharti Mittal is open to diluting stake in Bharti Tele-ventures Ltd, the flagship of the Bharti group. | |
| Mittals holds 46.4 per cent of the company through group arm Bharti Telecom. | |
| However, he made it clear that the group will remain as the single largest shareholder of the telecom flagship. | |
| Mittal said at the sidelines of the Airtel launch in Guwahati that the money so raised may be used for proposed new ventures such as agro business and airport development. | |
| Besides, Mittal is also keen to enter the hospitality industry and railways. | |
| "I feel that in a company like Bharti Tele with a huge market cap of nearly Rs 40,000 crore, our holding is quite high. | |
| So if required we could raise money by reducing our stake," he said. | |
| Incidentally, the valuation of Mittal's stake in Bharti Tele is around Rs 17,500 crore at the current market price of Rs 208-215. | |
| On the new ventures, Mittal said if the group won the bid for the Delhi airport, around Rs 4,500 crore would have to be inevsted over five years. | |
| He said around Rs 2,200 crore could be invested in the agro business in the next couple of years. | |
| "If we get the Delhi airport then later on we might look forward to the airports such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and even Guwahati. But that depends on whether we get Delhi because to start with you should work on a big airport like Delhi. I feel the decision on Delhi airport could come in January," added him. | |
| Mittal also said he is keen to enter the hospitality and railways segments where there is still lot of scope for development. | |
| "I asm very much keen on railways. If the government decided to throw it open I might consider entering this sector," added Mittal. | |
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Mittals may divest more of Bharti to enter new businesses
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First Published: Apr 15 2005 | 12:00 AM IST
