JANUARY 26, 2017 – India’s largest mobile-phone operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd. is considering mergers or stake sales at some of its Africa operations.
It explained that the measures became necessary for it to reduce its debt burden and make its offshore acquisition profitable.
Its Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal, who stated this in an interview with Bloomberg, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said some of the firm’s businesses in 15 African countries would be affected by the cut.
This could result in job cuts at various levels and shrinking of businesses in its countries of operations in Africa including Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Mittal further said the cut in operations in the continent could be completed within a year. Faced with an escalating price war in its home market, Bharti is looking for ways to pare net debt equivalent to about $12 billion as of September.
The company has sold its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations, as well as some of its tower businesses, as it reorganises the assets it bought in 2010 in a $9 billion deal with Kuwait’s largest mobile-phone operator, Zain.
Bharti’s African unit lost $91 million in the quarter ended September, compared with a $170 million loss in the previous year. As part of the debt reduction, Bharti is also considering selling a stake in BhartiInfratel Ltd, its tower unit.
The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has urged the Federal Government to address the shortgae of foreign exchange (forex) in the country so that they could improve on capacity and service delivery.
