Telecom major, Bharti Airtel, is expected to sell off its mobile towers in Nigeria, the biggest revenue generating market for the company in Africa for about $550 million by April.
The Economic Times India, quoted industry sources to have disclosed this. The company has less than 4,000 mobile towers in Nigeria. When contacted Airtel spokesperson said: "As a company policy, we do not comment on market speculation."
Meanwhile, the company, it was gathered was considering selling its mobile tower asset in Africa for about $2 billion to pay off its huge debts.
The net debt of the company at the end of September 2013 was at Rs60,877 crore. Nigeria contributed about 30 per cent revenue to Airtel's Africa business in its 2012 and 2013 fiscal year. Overall, the company had about 14,000 mobile towers in Africa across 17 countries at the end of March 2013.
The company has been making efforts to bring down its debt and financing costs related to it. On January 13, the company raised about Rs 2,100 crore from euro bonds, mainly to lower finance cost of its debt.
Airtel had reported wider net losses from the African business. Its Africa revenue had however increased