Airtel Africa, a subsidiary of India’s Bharti-Airtel, has received yet another $200m investment in its mobile money division by Qatar Holding LLC, an affiliate of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to reduce its debt and invest in network and sales infrastructure in the respective operating countries.
This comes just after Airtel Africa sold its Tanzanian tower portfolio for $175 million to pay debts, another $200m investment by TPG ‘s Rise Fund, and a $100m investment from Mastercard in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) received in April.
The investment deal will be completed in two tranches, with the first $150m in August 2021 and $50m at an unspecified date.
Airtel Africa says that QIA will hold a minority stake in the company while it retains the majority. However, what’s different in this investment deal is that QIA now has the authority to appoint a director to the board of directors of AMC BV, as well as “certain customary information and minority protection rights.”
The telecommunications company recorded significant growth in revenue between March and December 2020 even as profit after tax dropped.
In its Q1 financial report, Airtel’s Mobile Money brought in the least revenue at $110m. However, it surpassed the $83m of Q1 2020 by 38.7%. Its mobile money customer base went from 18.3 million in Q1 2020 to 21.7 million in Q1 2021, an 18.5% increase.
Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, QIA CEO, says that Airtel Money is critical for economic activity facilitation, particularly for customers who lack access to traditional financial services adding that the Sovereign Wealth Fund’s investment in Airtel Africa will contribute to sub-Saharan Africa’s financial inclusion.
