Airtel Kenya
Airtel Kenya Ltd, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa (owned by Bharti Airtel), is the second largest telecommunications services provider in Kenya after Safaricom PLC.[1] It has an estimated 16.2 million subscribers of the total 59.8 million subscribers in the Kenyan market equivalent to 27.2% market share. Airtel market share has been rising steadily over the last few years. [2][3]
Airtel Kenya previously operated as Kencell, Celtel, and Zain before rebranding to Airtel in November 2010.[4]
Its current CEO is Prasanta Das Sarma.[5]
History
In 2010, Bharti Airtel acquired Zain Africa's business for $10.7 billion.[6][7] The acquisition deal covered Zain operations in 15 countries including Kenya but excluding Sudan and Morocco. The deal increased Bharti Airtel's overall customer base to 180 million subscribers, including the 131 million subscribers it had in India in April 2010.[8]
In the acquisition deal, Zain received $7.9 billion in cash, with Bharti Airtel assuming $1.7 billion of consolidated debt obligations.
In 2018, it was announced that Airtel Kenya was considering a merger with Telkom Kenya. Airtel Kenya backed out of the talks in June 2018.[9]
References
- ^ "Airtel Kenya Company Overview". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
- ^ https://ca.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sector-Statistics-Report-Q1-2020-2021.pdf
- ^ Wednesday; July 18; 2018 9:14. "Airtel eats into Safaricom, Telkom Kenya's market". Business Daily. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
{{cite web}}:|last3=has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Kachwanya, Kennedy (2010-02-23). "From Kencell to Celtel to Zain ..now what next Bharrrrrr". Kachwanya.com | Kenya Tech News. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
- ^ Communities, Africa Business. "Prasanta Das Sarma appointed Managing Director of Airtel Kenya". Africa Business Communities. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
{{cite web}}:|first=has generic name (help) - ^ "India's Bharti Airtel completes acquisition of Zain Africa". Reuters. 2010-06-08. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
- ^ "Airtel acquires Zain's Africa business for $10.7 billion". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
- ^ "India's Bharti Airtel completes acquisition of Zain Africa". Reuters. 2010-06-08. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
- ^ Wafula, Macharia Kamau and Paul. "Airtel hangs up on merger plan with Telkom Kenya". The Standard. Retrieved 2018-12-07.