Orange buys Airtel Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone mobile units

Orange and Bharti Airtel International have signed an agreement leading to Orange’s acquisition of the Indian mobile phone company’s operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

Orange will acquire 100% of the two companies’ share capital, the mobile phone companies announced.

The consolidated revenue of the two companies is around 275 million Euros. These acquisitions will be implemented in partnership with Orange’s subsidiaries in the Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

According to the companies’ announcement, completion of these transactions remains subject to approval by the competent authorities.

Through this deal, Orange will reinforce its presence in Africa with two additional countries, adding almost 5.5 million customers to its mobile customer base.

Orange says the acquisition marks an important step forward in its growth strategy and will bring its African footprint up to 20 countries in 2016.

This is further to the initial agreement signed between Airtel and Orange in July 2015 regarding the potential acquisition of Airtel’s operations in Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Chad and Congo Brazzaville.

The agreements regarding potential transactions in the remaining two countries have lapsed.