Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel is doubling down on Africa venture, UK’s BT

India’s second-largest telecom firm, Bharti Airtel, is doubling down on its Africa and U.Ok. bets, becoming a member of a rising variety of corporations from the South Asian nation that wish to develop their international footprints.

Bharti Airtel on Thursday sought shareholders’ approval to extend its stake within the U.Ok-listed Airtel Africa to 79% from round 62.7% in a cashless share-swap deal, price 282.22 billion rupees ($2.9 billion), the Indian agency mentioned in an trade submitting.

Africa is a “high-growth potential” marketplace for the Indian firm and accounts for over 1 / 4 of Bharti Airtel’s consolidated income within the monetary 12 months ending March 2026, it added.

Bharti is additionally searching for to lift its stake in British multinational telecommunications agency BT to simply beneath 30% from 24.95% to achieve additional “financial publicity,” however not an entire takeover, Reuters mentioned in a report Friday.

“It may improve its stake to as a lot as 29.9% to ⁠achieve better financial publicity to BT, however doesn’t plan to pursue a full takeover,” in response to the report. A Bharti spokesperson instructed Reuters that the corporate “at the moment has no plans to extend ​its stake.”

BT Group and Bharti Airtel didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

The reported transfer comes at a time when abroad inventory markets are outperforming native indices, with the FTSE 100 having risen almost 19% over the previous one 12 months, whereas the Indian benchmark index Nifty 50 is down greater than 4%.

Bharti Airtel, India’s third-largest firm by market capitalization, is amongst a number of massive Indian corporates exploring abroad investments.  

On a 12-month trailing foundation ending in January 2026, abroad funding by Indian corporations rose to $35.8 billion, 2.6 instances increased over two years, international brokerage Morgan Stanley mentioned in a analysis notice final month.

Bharti first invested in Africa in 2010, when it acquired telecom operations of Zain for $10.7 billion. Within the final 12 months, the share of Airtel Africa, which offers telecommunications and cellular cash providers in 14 nations in sub-Saharan Africa, has risen over 78%, in response to knowledge from LSEG.

The deliberate IPO of Airtel Cellular Commerce B.V., a key subsidiary of Airtel Africa, may unlock “vital worth” within the close to future, Bharti mentioned within the submitting.

Bharti’s funding in BT has paid off as properly. It acquired a 24.5% stake in BT in 2024 for almost $4 billion, and since then, the shares of the British telecom group have risen 55%. In the meantime, shares of Bharti Airtel are up simply 3.4% during the last 12 months.