Airtel Payments Bank and Airtel Africa are subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel. The new real-time payment service will have millions of Airtel Payments Bank accounts in India and mobile wallet offering across 14 African countries. 

Western Union and Bharti Airtel’s combined service is expected to launch this year. 

Western Union’s partnership with Airtel Payments Bank in India will ensure seamless money transfers in the country. Likewise, its partnership with Airtel Africa will allow more than 15 million Airtel Money mobile wallet users in Nigeria, Uganda, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar, Kenya, Congo, Niger, Tchad, Rwanda and Seychelles, to accept overseas money transfers without any hassle.

Raghunath Mandava, CEO of Airtel Africa, said in a statement, “This partnership will give our customers the convenience and security of directly receiving and sending remittances from their Airtel mobile money wallets. They will now be automatically credited and debited via their Airtel mobile money wallets on their phone and can immediately access the funds to pay bills or merchants and transfer funds to family and friends or convert to cash from the widespread Airtel Money agents, kiosks and branches.”

Airtel Payments Bank has established more than 500,000 banking points across India. Airtel Africa is a leading telecom and mobile money services provider across 14 African countries. 

Currently, Western Union has its presence in more than 100 countries, with 40 banking and payment partnerships. 

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The two Indian operators will have greater leverage to fight Jio if the talks result in an equity investment. The top executives of China Mobile, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea met separately last December. It appears that China Mobile is keen to establish a presence in India. The Chinese telecom giant also wants to become a holding company with either of the two Indian companies or both. 

A source told the media that, “China Mobile has grown the cloud space in its home market and is now scouting for investment opportunities overseas. It has initially proposed a structure which is similar to what Singtel has with Airtel, but for growing the cloud services market here.”

Bharti Telecom holds 41 percent in Bharti Airtel, making it the single largest shareholder. Singapore’s telecom giant Singtel owns 48 percent in Bharti Telecom.

China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in the country with 930 million mobile customers and 170 million wireline customers. Its offers data services, wireless data traffic, mobile data solutions, telecommunications network planning design and consulting and technology support, the reports said. 

The  number of players in India’s telecom market has reduced from eight to just three private players. The industry is facing challenges with liabilities running into billions of dollars. Recently, the Supreme Court order for including non-core revenue in telecom giants’ gross adjusted revenue has sparked rivalry again between the old operators. 

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Airtel Kenya is a subsidiary of Airtel Africa owned by India’s Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel announced the planned Telkom Kenya and Airtel Kenya merger in February. Telkom Kenya is the country’s smallest telecommunications services provider.

There was anticipation that the Telkom Kenya and Airtel Kenya merger would pose a challenge to Safaricom. Safaricom is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya — and one of the most profitable companies in the east and central Africa.

Telkom spokesperson told Economic Times, “Telkom has received a request for information from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), with regard to allegations made in 2014, and (it) has given the EACC all the information that the commission has requested and continues to cooperate with them on the matter.”

In 2005, France’s main telecommunications company Orange acquired Telkom Kenya and later sold it to  the UK private equity company Helios Investment Partners. Now, Helios Investment Partners owns 60 percent of Telkom Kenya, while the remaining 40 percent is owned by the Kenya government.

Media reports said that the merger is important to both Airtel and Telkom to compete with Safaricom. Currently, Safaricom owns 62.4 percent market share in Kenya. That said, Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya hold 26.1 percent and 8 percent market share respectively.

Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Mugo Kibati told the media that the company will do its due diligence to cooperate with the investigation.

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Airtel Africa is also considering listing its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as well. The exact number of shares to be sold and the indicative price range of the offer will be decided in due course, the company added.

After it is admitted to trading on the LSE premium market, the African mobile operator owned by Bharti Airtel of India will net debt to ebitda ratio of 2.5. Ahead of its London IPO, Airtel Africa had raised $1.25 billion in pre-IPO funding in October last year in addition to another $200 million in January.

In the March quarter of the year, Bharti Airtel’s Africa unit said that it had posted a net profit of $83 million compared to a loss of $49 million a year earlier.

Africa offers a ray of hope for Bharti Airtel with its India business struggling.

Total revenue at Airtel Africa grew 6 percent year-on-year from $736 million to $781 million in the March quarter. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased 12 percent year-on-year from $307 million to $344 million in the March quarter.

Airtel Africa saw its data customers grow to 30 million in the March quarter from 5.1 million in the year before. Its revenue from data services grew 30 percent year-on-year to $192 million. Transaction value on the Airtel Money platform rose 22 percent to $6.8 billion.

Airtel Africa is the holding company for Bharti Airtel’s operations in 14 countries in the continent. It covers 99 million users across three regions: Nigeria; East Africa, comprisingTanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia; and the rest of Africa, comprisingCongo Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Gabon, Chad, Madagascar, and Seychelles.

Nigeria accounts for half of Airtel Africa’s ebitda and 40 percent of revenue.

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The telecom sector in India is expanding from a network service to a data-driven support after the entry of 4G operator Reliance Jio. Jio had 168mn broadband subscribers by the end of January, Airtel had 75mn and Vodafone had 55mn, reported Economic Times.

Being in a heavily competitive industry, receiving more subscribers based on content programming is a challenge. CEO of Content and Apps, Bharti Airtel, Sameer Batra said: “The ecosystem has now become more conducive to content and these offers will be a great differentiator.”

“If we are able to lock in consumers via digital services, the propensity to stay on is very high and will also help get customers get onto 4G.”

In addition to sports, telecom operators are looking at other forms of content to retain existing users and attract new ones. Airtel offers free Amazon Prime subscriptions to users who are willing to recharge above a specified limit, Vodafone India offers free Netflix membership and Idea Cellular has signed content partnership with other providers such as Eros, Balaji and Sony Music.

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