Bharti Airtel, the Indian mobile company, announced on Wednesday it would acquire 100% of Telecom Seychelles for about Rs2.89bn (US$62m), according to several local reports.
This announcement comes after Bharti closed in June a US$10.7bn transaction to…
Bharti Airtel, the Indian mobile company, announced on Wednesday it would acquire 100% of Telecom Seychelles for about Rs2.89bn (US$62m), according to several local reports.
This announcement comes after Bharti closed in June a US$10.7bn transaction to acquire Zain Telecom’s African assets.
In a statement with the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bharti said that with the acquisition it would expand its presence to 19 countries, including 16 African nations.
“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 benefit further by leveraging the efficiencies of scale of our African operations,” said Manoj Kohli, Bharti Airtel CEO in the statement.
Telecom Seychelles has been operating under the Airtel brand, although the Indian company did not have any stake in Telecom Seychelles before this acquisition, clarified a company spokesperson in an interview with The Times of India.
For the quarter ended on 30th June, Bharti Airtel’s net profit dropped to Rs16.82bn (US$363.2m) from Rs24.75bn (US$530m) a year earlier. The results included acquisition-related costs of Rs982m (US$21m).
Bharti and Telecom Seychelles could not be reached for comment.
