Bharti Airtel likely to sell Africa tower biz for $1.8 billion

India's largest telecom player Bharti Airtel is likely to sell its telecom tower business in Africa for $1.8 billion to non-affiliated tower companies instead of transferring the portfolio to its Indian towers arm, Bharti Infratel, which already owns the telco's towers in India,CNBC-TV18 reported today.

This way, Bharti Airtel would be able to raise the much-needed funds for its own growth and help pay off its high-cost loans.

Bharti currently has 15,000 towers in Africa and has received expression of interest from four prospective buyers, which include large global tower majors likeHelios, ATC, Eaton and IHS.

ATC has the deepest pockets of the four major tower comapnies in Africa, and is deemed to be the only buyer capable of swallowing the entire 15,000-strong portfolio.

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Bharti Airtel was earlier mullinghiving off the company's African telecom tower assets into a separate company and then transferring it to its listed subsidiary, Bharti Infratel.

The sale of the tower assets will help bring down Bharti's massive debt which currently stands at Rs 65,000 crore. 70 percent of this debt is held in foreign currenc.

Bharti made a pricey entry into Africa via the purchase of Zain's portfolio for $10.7billion in 2011. The acquisition is still a drag on the company's books and monetising infrastructure may go some way to paying down debt.

The stock is up 1.8 percent in trade today.