(Reuters/TBI africa.com) Airtel Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel Ltd, is considering a stock market flotation in London, it said on Tuesday.
The company’s Chief Executive, Raghunath Mandava, said in a statement that the listing was part of efforts to expand its data and mobile money services across Africa.
The company is aiming to raise around $1 billion in a June equity offering, a source close to the deal said.
Airtel operates in 14 African markets including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Uganda and Zambia.
Last year, the telecom operator raised $1.25 billion from six global investors, including SoftBank Group Corp, Warburg Pincus LLC and Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd.
A further $200 million was raised in January from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), valuing the company just under $5 billion.
Airtel Africa is looking to trade on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, using its premium listing segment, which has more stringent rules than the European Union’s minimum requirements.
It is to sell 25 per cent of new shares to reduce existing debt.
The cash injection from existing investors has already helped to reduce Airtel Africa’s net debt to $4 billion in March, compared to $7.7 billion in the previous year.
Its net income reached $83 million in the year to March, compared to a net loss of $49 million a year earlier.
The telecoms operator is also seeking to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“The 14 countries where we operate offer strong GDP growth potential and have young and fast-growing populations, low customer and data penetration and inadequate banking infrastructure.
“These fast-growing markets provide us a great opportunity to grow both our telecom and payments businesses,” Mandava said.
Airtel Africa’s debut on the London market would follow that of Middle Eastern payments companies Finablr and Network International, which started trading over the past couple of months.
The company has appointed JP Morgan, Citigroup Inc, BofA Merrill Lynch, Absa Group Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs International (GS.N) and Standard Bank Group Ltd (SBKJ.J) as advisers.
