BEVERLY HILLS, January 25, (THEWILL) – Owners of Airtel Nigeria, Bharti Airtel Ltd. is considering mergers or outright sales of stake at some of its Africa operations due to the need to cut debt and make its biggest overseas acquisition profitable.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the company’s Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal, stated that some of the firm’s businesses in 15 African countries would be affected.
He further disclosed that the cut in operations in the continent could be completed within a year.
This could result in job cuts at various levels and shrinking of businesses in countries of operations in Africa including: Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Faced with an escalating price war in its home market, the India’s largest mobile-phone operator is looking for ways to pare net debt equivalent to about $12 billion as of September.
Bharti has sold its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations, as well as some of its Bharti Infratel Ltd. tower businesses, as it reorganises 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, and lost $170 million in the previous year. As part of the debt reduction, the company is also considering selling a stake in its tower unit.
The Bharti Chairman disclosed that a committee was studying whether the sale would be a minority stake or control of the tower unit, adding that a decision could be taken in a month.
