The largest Operator in India, Bharti Airtel, Monday said that the company is currently in talks with French Operator, Orange to explore the possibility of selling its subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone.
Bharti Airtel made its entry into the African mobile market with the acquisition of these companies from Zain Telecoms in 2010 for about $10 billion.
The deal with Orange via its subsidiary, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands), if it comes through will help Bharti to cut losses and to focus in the higly competitive home market, expecially with Reliance Jio's large scale entrance into the mobile space. The Operator has earlier this month raised an estimated $1.3 billion when it completed the sale of mobile towers in five African countries. As for Orange which is already operating in 19 countries in Africa, the acquisition will see it expanding further into the fast growing mobile market in Africa.
