Airtel Africa has recently raised $1.25 billion from global investors including SoftBank Group, Singtel, Warburg Pincus, and Temasek Holdings, the financing sees the company now valued at $4.4 billion. Singapore’s Singtel, which invested $250 million in this round, now has a 39.5% stake in Airtel.
In Nigeria, one of its key markets, Airtel has recently become the second largest operator, marginally overtaking the Nigerian-owned Globacom
According to Raghunath Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa – a subsidiary of the Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel, the company is proposing an initial public offering on an international stock exchange, although there is no specific timeline. Money raised from going public, alongside some of the new funding, will go towards cutting down the company’s existing $5 billion debt. Yes, it’s that bad. For Airtel, the funding will boost its “capacity to upgrade networks” as well as “expand coverage” in the 14 African countries where they currently serve 91 million subscribers. The company is looking to double down and “achieve rapid growth” with Airtel Money, its mobile money service. It’s a tack being adopted by other Africa-based telcos looking to shore up conventional voice call revenues by offering mobile money services to boost average revenue per user (ARPU).
