Airtel to invest $100 million in Gabon over three years

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it would invest $100 million in the next three years on its expansion in Gabon. The company gained a foothold in the west central African country with its acquisition of Zain Telecom's assets in Africa earlier this year.

Manoj Kohli, CEO of Bharti's African operations, said in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, that Airtel would invest $100 million over the next three years in the country to expand the network deeper into the market and launch innovative products like wireless broadband (and) m-commerce.

The company is looking at penetrating the rural markets of most of the 15 African countries and has already announced similar investments in Zambia, Malawi and Uganda.

Earlier this month, the company completed its $10.7 billion acquisition of the African assets of Kuwaiti cellphone operator Zain. This was one of the largest cross-border deals in Indian history.

Bharti said the deal has boosted its subscriber base to over 180 million, which is expected to yield combined revenues of over $12.4 billion, taking it to the ranks to the top five telecom firms globally.

With the Zain deal, Bharti has operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.