Bharti may prepay part of acquisition debt

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel, which today reported a reported a bigger-than-expected 27 per cent fall in quarterly profit, could prepay $800 million to $900 million of the debt it raised for acquiring its African operations, its group chief financial officer said said on Wednesday.

Bharti, 32 per cent owned by Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel, acquired the African telecom assets from Kuwaiti group Zain in June in a $9 billion deal which made it the world's fifth-biggest mobile operator by users.

The company could also look at an initial public offer for its tower unit, although there is no definite plan, Manik Jhangiani said.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has budgeted about $2 billion for its fiscal 2011 capital expenditure, excluding its tower unit, an executive said on Wednesday. The tower arm is expected to spend $300 million to $350 million in capital expenditure in the same period.