Airtel Africa has announced that it has secured $1.25 Billion in funding from six global investors including SoftBank Group Corp, Warburg Pincus LLC and Temasek Holdings (Private).
The funding is expected to be channelled towards reducing existing debt of about $5 billion and expand its Africa operations as it considers to go public in order to raise more money.
According to Airtel Chief Executive and Managing director for Africa Raghunath Mandava, the ‘primary equity issuance underlines the confidence of leading global investors in Airtel Africa.
‘’The transaction will help us further deleverage our balance sheet and boost our capacity to upgrade networks, expand coverage in different markets, ” Mandava said.
Mid last month, it was reported that Airtel’s mother company had picked UBS, Citi, and JP Morgan to coordinate an initial public offering (IPO) in London. The African business contributes more than a quarter of its revenue which represents $20 billion in market capitalisation.
