Bharti Airtel, a leading private sector telecom company, announced the outsourcing of 949 towers in Zambia to IHS Holding (IHS), the mobile telecommunications infrastructure provider in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

With outsourcing tower infrastructure to IHS, Airtel will focus on its core business and customers. This deal enables the company to deleverage through debt reduction, and will significantly reduce its ongoing capital expenditure on passive infrastructure.

Christian de Faria, MD & CEO Africa, Bharti Airtel said, "The initiative in Zambia will help us deliver a reliable high quality network run by passive infrastructure experts, whilst reducing our capex requirements and operating costs."

"The Airtel team will concentrate on serving the market, serving customers and delivering on our proposition of affordable and innovative telecom products and services," he added.

Shares of the company declined Rs 2.05, or 0.59%, to trade at Rs 343.30. The total volume of shares traded was 49,559 at the BSE (1.21 p.m., Wednesday).