Bharti Airtel, a leading private sector telecom company, has completed the sale of its tower assets in 5 countries while in 2 countries the agreements have lapsed. The total proceeds from the transactions already concluded are over USD 1.3 billion which would be utilised for reducing the debt.

The company is in talks for the balance 6 countries, hoping to have the finality in the coming few months on the transactions proposed which is subject to availability of all approvals and completion of the conditions precedent.

Earlier the company announced that it has entered into agreements to divest tower assets in 13 countries in Africa to different tower companies.

Shares of the company gained Rs 2.3, or 0.54%, to trade at Rs 426.80. The total volume of shares traded was 33,384 at the BSE (10.15 a.m., Thursday).

Total volume of shares traded on the bourses today was lower by 87.85% to 512,271 compared with 22-day average volume of 4,216,885.