Bharti Airtel said on Monday that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Orange, a French telecom operator, to explore the possible acquisition by Orange of the company's subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone.
"Orange and Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV (“Airtel”) enter an exclusive agreement concerning four Airtel subsidiaries in Africa," the company said.
But there is no certainty of any binding agreement as a result of these discussions.
Earlier, the company said that the agreements for sale of tower assets in Democratic Republic of Congo between the respective subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel and Helios Towers Africa have lapsed.
The company has already reduced its tower assets in five countries. The proceeds from the transactions concluded are over USD 1.3 billion and would be utilised for reducing the debt.
Shares of the company gained Rs 2.85, or 0.67%, to settle at Rs 428.70. The total volume of shares traded was 349,631 at the BSE (Monday).