Bharti Airtel not looking to buyout Sprint: Manoj Kohli

Bharti Airtel is not looking at acquiring US telecom carrier Sprint, but would continue to focus on emerging markets where it sees huge potential for penetration, Group CEO Manoj Kohli said today.

"No. We are not looking at any such company (Sprint)... We are looking at emerging markets because our business model can be implanted well in these economies. We will continue our focus there," Kohli said while replying to a query if the company is looking to acquire Sprint.

Expanding its international footprint, India's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel had earlier this month announced the acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Bangladesh's Warid Telecom.

This is the second country in the SAARC (8-country economic and political grouping) region that the company has entered. Last January, Airtel launched services in Sri Lanka.

Warid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group, offers services across all 64 districts of Bangladesh and has over 2.9 million users.

Under the agreement Bharti Airtel will make a fresh investment of USD 300 million to rapidly expand Warid's operations and will have management and board control.

In India, Bharti Airtel boasts of over 110 million users.