Bharti Airtel, the nation’s second-largest telco, has finalised a whopping Rs 32,000 crore fundraise, through a combination of a Rs 25,000 crore rights issue and a Rs 7,000 crore perpetual bonds float to create a war chest to cut debt and meet capex needs for beefing up its 4G networks to fight Reliance Jio Infocomm.“The Bharti Airtel board has considered the recommendations of the special committee of directors, and thereby approved the fund raising of upto Rs 32,000 crore through a rights issuance of upto Rs 25,000 crore and perpetual bond with equity credit upto Rs 7,000 crore,” the company told the exchanges Thursday.Airtel’s rights issue price at Rs 220 per fully paid equity share though is at nearly a 31% discount to its Rs 317.95 closing stock price on BSE on Thursday. The company’s mega fund-raise was announced after market hours. The Airtel stock closed 0.63% lower, after scaling an intra-day peak of Rs 326.85.The Sunil Mittal-led telco said its board had “approved the issuance of fully paid-up equity shares of the company for an amount, aggregating Rs 25,000 crore by way of a rights issue to eligible equity shareholders as on the record date, (to be notified subsequently),” in line with Sebi (Issue of Capital Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018.The rights entitlement ratio has been pegged at 19 shares for every 67 held by eligible shareholders as on the record date.The Airtel board also “approved perpetual bonds of upto $1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) denominated in foreign currency, subject to price, market conditions, and other terms and conditions as acceptable, and with conditions allowing the full accounting equity credit, and subject to all applicable laws, including under ECB regulations”.The Airtel board has authorised the special committee of directors for fund-raising, to proceed with the rights issue forthwith and inter-alia decide on its other terms and conditions, including setting the record data, appointment of intermediaries, finalisation of Letter of Offer and related matters.It has also authorised the `Committee of Directors’ to decide, assess and conclude the issuance of perpetual bond under such terms and conditions as may be deemed fit.ET had reported last November that Airtel planned to raise over Rs 15,000 crore via a rights issue to build a war chest to cut debt and meet 4G capex needs. Over the past 23-odd months, Airtel has been raising funds by progressively reducing its stake in its listed tower arm, Bharti Infratel, to reduce debt and free up cash to fight Jio. It has already raised well over Rs 12,000 crore through multiple stake dilutions. Last December, it decided to sell a further 32% stake in Bharti Infratel, valued at close to Rs 15,500 crore, to build its 4G war chest. Last November, Airtel’s Africa arm raised $1.25 billion (or Rs 9,200 crore approx), through a placement of shares to six global investors, including Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel and SoftBank Group International, in the runup to an Airtel Africa IPO likely around June this year, through which the telco plans to garner an additional $1.5-1.6 billion. More, recently, it did a follow-up $200 million fundraise via a fresh shares issuance to Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).