Airtel completes sale of Burkina Faso subsidiary to Orange

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel today said it has completed the sale of its subsidiary in Burkina Faso to Orange.
In January, Bharti Airtel had said it will sell its operations in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone to France-based Orange.
"Orange has completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of the operations of Airtel in Burkina Faso via its subsidiaries. We shall update the exchange regarding the process for Sierra Leone as and when it is completed," it said in a filing to BSE.
Airtel, in July last year, had announced that it is entering an agreement with Orange to sell its four subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone in Africa.

The agreements for the remaining two countries have lapsed.
As per the agreement, Orange will acquire 100 per cent of the companies' share capital. The consolidated revenue of the two companies is around 275 million euro.

These acquisitions will be implemented in partnership with Orange's subsidiaries in the Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.
Airtel had said outlay for Orange for these transactions will be based on the financial of its two subsidiaries for the year ended March 31, 2016, and will represent the equivalent of 7.9 times Airtel's EBITDA in these two countries at this time.
(REOPENS DEL 55)
Airtel, in its petition, said that in a regulated industry it is sectoral regulator's duty to ensure compliance of all the tariff orders, regulations and directions by all the service providers and to maintain a level-playing field.

"The said offers of the said TSP calculatedly induces, transports and dumps massive one-way-traffic upon other service providers such as the appellant, by impermissible abuse of extant Tariff Orders. The Appellant's rights under Article 19(1) (g) and 14 of the Constitution are thus being violated by such inaction on the part of the TRAI in ensuring compliance by all TSPs uniformly," the petition said.
Pointing out that interoperator traffic had always been two-way, the appeal said that traffic had become virtually a "one-way-stampede" after Jio's free tariff plans.
"Evidently, the said illegal tariff plans are designed to induce customer acquisition and traffic patterns to destroy competitor's business such as the Appellant...," the petition said.

It accused TRAI of "admittedly perpetuating illegality" by acting as a mute spectator even in face of three months extension of free service by Jio till March 31, 2017.
"...The violation of the Directions as well as the Tariff Orders is ex facie present and thus illegality is getting perpetuated with each passing day which is affecting the entire telecom industry and thus the consumer as well," Airtel's petition pointed out.