Bharti Airtel today denied a Bloomberg report that said that the company has delayed the IPO of its Africa unit.
“We would like to categorically state that Airtel Africa IPO preparations are proceeding as per plan and there is no change in plans,” the Indian telco said in a statement.
“[A] new board is in place with new investor’s representatives and we remain very confident about the IPO process,” it added.
Quoting sources, Bloomberg had said: “The company, which was originally aiming to list the unit in London by March, has pushed back the share sale by about half a year.”
The Bloomberg report also said the company was looking for a valuation of $8 billion for the unit, including the debt on its books.
However, said the report, the company was rethinking the plans due to the turmoil in global equity markets.
Five days ago, the company had raised $1.25 billion by valuing the African unit at $4.4 billion, excluding debt.
The money would be used to reduce the $5 bln debt and to grow the business, the company had said.