New Delhi, March 18 (PTI): Bharti Group may consider an IPO for its telecom equipment company but ruled out going public for the retail, agri and finance businesses for at least five years.

“We will not go public for any of the businesses till they mature...Only company which may be a candidate for IPO in the near future is Bharti Teletech,” Sunil Mittal, chairman and group managing director, said.

Bharti has announced close to $12 billion (nearly Rs 52,000 crore) investment in the next 5-7 years with $8 billion (about Rs 36,000 crore) in telecom by 2010 and over $2 billion (over Rs 9,000 crore) in retail and up to Rs 1,500 crore in financial services.

Regarding the source of funds and reason for not going public, Mittal said, “We are a virtually debt-free company and, therefore, bringing investments is not a problem at all.”