Orange has further boosted its West African presence, following up yesterday’s agreed acquisition of Cellcom Liberia with planned purchases of Airtel Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
Orange (EPA:ORA) has agreed to buy Bharti Airtel’s (NSE:BHARTIARTL) busi
Orange will pay a multiple of 7.9x EBITDA based on the companies’ results for the year ended 31 March 2016. Together, the two companies have consolidated revenue of around €275m (US$298m) and 5.5 million customers.
Lazard and Société Générale are advising Orange, while Arma Partners is acting on behalf of Airtel.
Both transactions will require approval by the relevant local authorities.
Orange said the transaction illustrates its strategy to buy into “high potential, emerging markets where the group is not already present”. Yesterday, the French incumbent announced its plans to acquire Cellcom Liberia.
The new acquisitions will be contiguous with Orange’s existing markets in North and West Africa: Morocco, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Niger. It was last year linked to interest in Mattel in Mauritania, while yesterday’s Cellcom deal did not include its operations in Guinea.
Orange said it would carry out the acquisitions in partnership with its subsidiaries in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.
