Bharti Airtel to merge India & Africa operations by mid 2013

Bharti Airtel Ltd has plans to merge its Indian and African operations into a single business entity under a global CEO, The Economic Times today reported.

The new organisational structure is likely to be in place by the first half of 2013.

The move evidently was aimed at deriving synergies and cutting costs, as the company's volume and revenue growth have fallen to single digits. In the June quarter, it raised its talk time revenues by a mere 8 per cent from a year earlier.  

Also the pressure on tariffs and intense competition was expected to remain.

Also Bharti's profitability has fallen for 10 consecutive quarters, as it was under attack from competitors in India and Africa revival was taking longer than anticipated.

Mint quoted an analyst with a domestic brokerage firm, as saying that while the company had kept costs low overall by outsourcing a large part of its operations, there was still scope for some reduction in expenditure,  such as streamlining the Indian and African operations that would lead to some rationalisation of top-level employees.