Bharti Airtel’s Africa business on Friday said Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), will pay $200 million for a minority stake in its telco’s mobile-money unit, AMC. 

AMC BV is the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations.

The transaction will close in two stages. USD150m will be invested at the first close, subject to regulatory filings, with USD50m to be invested at the second close. The Transaction first close is expected in August.

That’s on top of the $300 million Airtel Africa received from selling stakes in the business to private equity firm TPG and Mastercard in April.

Airtel Africa Q1 Net profit More Than Doubles 

On Thursday, Airtel Africa business reported a net profit of $142 million in the fiscal first quarter ended 30 June 2021.

This was on the back of strong growth in data and mobile money revenues along with stable finance costs.

According to the telco, this was strong double-digit growth across voice (26.0%), data (37.4%) and mobile money (53.7%), and across all our regions.

The telco’s revenue rose nearly 31% on-year to $1.11 billion, the company said Thursday. 

Strong revenue growth was recorded across all regions: Nigeria up 38.2%, East Africa up 32.8% and Francophone Africa up 24.9%; and across key services, with revenues for voice up 26.0%, data up 37.4% and mobile money up 53.7%.

“Q1 of last year was impacted by the start of Covid, but even after adjusting for these effects, our Q1’22 revenue growth rates for the Group, service segments and reporting regions were all ahead of Q4’21 trends,” Raghunath Mandava, Airtel Africa’s chief executive officer, said. 

Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East Africa and Central and West Africa. 

Going forward, it said it will continue on its modernisation strategy and rollout of the network, along with simplifying products and improving our distribution across voice, data and mobile money. 

“Our robust operating model and solid execution should enable us to continue our profitable growth,” said Mandava.