The world’s third largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Friday said that its deal to sell telecom towers in Africa to Eaton Towers has lapsed and stands terminated in Malawi.
In September 2014, Airtel had announced that it had sold over 3,500 telecom towers in Africa to Eaton Towers. As part of the deal, it was to sell and lease back over 3,500 towers from Eaton in six countries. “The agreements for sale of tower assets in Africa between Bharti Airtel Malawi Holdings, and Eaton Towers (Lilongwe), has lapsed and therefore stands terminated,” Airtel said in a filing to the BSE.
The company, while announcing the development last year, had said the agreements would allow Airtel to focus on its core business and customers, enable it to deleverage through debt reduction, and significantly reduce its on-going capital expenditure on passive infrastructure.