Airtel Contemplates Exiting African Market

Forum 7 years ago

Airtel Contemplates Exiting African Market

Airtel, India’s largest mobile-phone operator and telecom giant in Nigeria may be forced to close her operations in 15 africa nations.

In Kenya alone, the firm has already fired about half of its staff as it struggles with competition. In 5yrs, Airtel lost N146,645,880,750 (Sh50 billion) in the Kenyan’ market.

The company has sold its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations, as well as some of its tower businesses, as it reorganizes assets it bought in 2010 in a$9 billion deal with Kuwait’s largest mobile-phone operator.

The report via Bloomberg claims that Airtel “is considering mergers or stake sales at some of its Africa operations as it looks tocut debt and make its biggest overseas acquisition profitable.”

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Airtel, said this process would be completed within a year and would affect some of Bharti’s businesses in 15 African nations in which Nigeria is not an exception.

Apparently, business has not been smooth in these 15 African nations as they lost $91 million in the quarter ended September, compared with a $170 million loss in the previous year.