Bharti Airtel said shareholders of Airtel Africa Ltd, which houses the Indian company’s operations in 14 African countries, have constituted a board of directors, including Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal and his son Shravin Bharti Mittal.
Others appointed to the board include both Airtel representatives as well as those of big private equity players who invested in the company recently.
The directors include Raghunath Mandava, Akhil Gupta, Vishal Mahadevia, Alok Sama, Arthur Lang and Richard Gubbins.
The constitution of the board of directors follows recent successful primary equity issuance of USD 1.25 Billion to six leading global investors comprising of Warburg Pincus,Temasek, Singtel, SoftBank Group International and others.
The UK-based subsidiary will hold Airtel’s operations in Nigeria, Chad, Congo B, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.
The move to set up a board of directors lends further strength to Airtel’s plans to hold an initial public offering for the holding company in the UK and raise billions of dollars to pay off debt.
“During the second quarter ending 30 September 2018, the Company’s revenues grew by 10.8% Y-o-Y led by strong growth in data and Airtel money transactions,” the company said.
Airtel recently denied a media report that had said that the company is having second thoughts about an IPO right now, given the turmoil in global financial markets.
The Indian company said all its plans are on track.