Bharti Airtel cleared to acquire operations of Rwanda’s Millicom
What you need to know:
- Merged entity to have largest customer base of 5.9 million subscribers
- Merged entity to have Rwanda’s largest sales and distribution network
Dar es Salaam. Bharti Airtel Limited (“Airtel”) a telecommunications services provider with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa, announced January 24 that it has received an approval for the acquisition of Tigo Rwanda Limited a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular S.A. from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA).
A statement released by Airtel says the merged entity will have the largest customer base in Rwanda with 5.9 million subscribers.
“The combined networks of the two companies will serve customers with voice and data services, global roaming and mobile banking services. It will also have Rwanda’s largest sales and distribution network,” reads part of the statement.
The statement reveals further that the merger will result in the only negative earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization joining other 13 positive entities in Africa.
On completion, the acquisition will undergo seamless integration, both on the customer as well as the network side and further strengthen Airtel’s market position in Rwanda.
With a presence in 14 countries across Africa, Airtel is one of the largest telecom service providers on the continent in terms of geographical reach, and had close to 84 million customers at the end of quarter ended December 30, 2017.
Globally, Airtel is ranked as the third largest mobile services provider in terms of customer base.
