Bharti Airtel today announced that it will invest USD 10 million in Seychelles. The move comes after the Board of Directors approved the acquisition of 100% of the leading telecom operator in the country, Telecom Seychelles Limited, for an enterprise value of USD 62 million. During a meeting with the Vice President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, Bharti Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Mr. Manoj Kohli, said that the investment will be phased over the next three years.

Bharti Airtel will also participate in the Seychelles East Africa submarine cable (SEAS) project. This is a 2,000 km submarine cable between Seychelles and Dar es Salaam, which will connect Seychelles to the world and the global economy. The USD $34 million project will especially improve the services offered to large enterprises and Corporates and will further augment Telecom Seychelles world-class mobile services, which currently include new generation 3G mobile technology and integrated wireline services.

Mr. Manoj Kohli said, “We will leverage our expertise and infrastructure to offer customized data solutions for our large enterprise and corporate clients, which will help them gain a unique competitive advantage.”

The acquisition of Telecom Seychelles has grown Bharti Airtel’s African footprint to 16 countries and its overall presence to 19 countries.

Bharti Airtel had recently acquired the mobile operations of the Zain group in 15 countries across Africa. Telecom Seychelles started its operations in 1998 by launching mobile services. It has today, established itself with over 57% share of the mobile market.
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About Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa.  The company offers mobile voice & data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national & international long distance services to carriers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek.  Bharti Airtel had over 189 million customers across its operations at the end of June 2010. To know more visit www.airtel.in