India's largest telco Bharti Airtel is continuing its Africa safari with the latest acquisition of Telecom Seychelles Ltd. Bharti Airtel is acquiring a 100% stake in Telecom Seychelles for an enterprise valuation of $62 million. The company has a mobile market share of 57%
in the country, according to a Bharti release. Telecom Seychelles was operating under the Bharti Airtel brand name till now though the telco did not have a stake in the firm. It was till now owned by promoter group Bharti Enterprises.
Bharti Airtel, the fifth largest telco in the world, completed the acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain's Africa operation only in June for $9 billion. The deal gave Bharti Airtel 42 million subscribers and a presence in 15 African countries. In January, Bharti Airtel acquired a
70% stake in Abu Dhabi Group's Warid Telecom, the fourth-largest mobile company in Bangladesh. it also has operations in Sri Lanka.
Telecom Seychelles started operations in 1998 and offers 3G and wireline services across the island nation.
“We are delighted at the addition of Seychelles to our Africa portfolio. Telecom Seychelles has world class operations that include state-of-the-art 3G services. These operations will further benefit by leveraging the efficiencies of scale of our Africa operations,” said
Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Jt. MD, Bharti Airtel.
Bharti Airtel reported its Q1 results today with net profit falling to Rs 1,682 crore from Rs 2,475 crore a year earlier. Total income rose by 17.4% to Rs 12,231 crore during the first quarter ending June.
