Bharti Airtel appoints 8 global banks, kicks off Africa IPO plan on international stock exchange

Telecom major Bharti Airtel's Africa business arm has announced the appointment of global banks for an intended IPO on an international stock exchange. The banks appointed are JP Morgan, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, Absa Group Limited, Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs International and Standard Bank Group, according to a company filing with the BSE on Monday. Airtel Africa Limited is a global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.
 
The company resorted to this move following the recent subscription of shares in Airtel Africa by six leading global investors comprising Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel, SoftBank Group International and others for an aggregate consideration of USD 1.25 Billion, said the statement. 
 
According to the statement, the financial performance of Airtel Africa continues to improve, having turned positive in terms of net profit and operating free cash flow. As reported in the October 2018 Quarterly Report, during the second quarter ending September 30, 2018, Airtel Africa’s revenues grew in constant currency by 10.8% Y-o-Y, led by growth in data and Airtel money transactions. 
 
The company's mobile data traffic expanded by 53% to 89 Bn MBs Y-o-Y, while data customer base increased by 32.1% to 27.1 mn, Airtel Money customer base increased to 12.9 Mn, boosting the total transaction value on Airtel Money platform by 31% to $ 6.3 billion, it said, adding that the company also witnessed an improvement of EBITDA margin by 3.9% Y-o-Y to 37.1%.
 
Earlier this month, Airtel Africa also announced its newly constituted Board of Directors that includes representatives from Bharti Airtel and the investors. The new Board of Directors brings a wealth of industry and governance experience to further drive the Airtel Africa business.