Airtel has officially responded with a noncommittal answer to a BSE inquiry into its selling its Bangladesh and Sri Lanka assets. CNBC had first reported last week that Airtel was planning to sell its tower business Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where the company owns 2,500 and 4,000 towers respectively, to Etisalat and Orange. This was Airtel’s reply (pdf) to the BSE inquiry: Dear Sir/Madam, With reference to your above mentioned email, kindly note that Bharti Airtel Limited keeps evaluating various opportunities, on an ongoing basis in ordinary course of business and will make necessary disclosure as and when required. Please take the above information on record. Thanking you, Yours faithfully, For Bharti Airtel Limited Rajendra Chopra, Company Secretary. Airtel entered Sri Lanka back in 2009 with an investment of $200 million and Bangladesh in 2010 by buying 70% stake in Warid Telecom, and eventually the rest 30%. Recently, the company had appointed Jinesh Hegde as CEO if its Sri Lanka operations, replacing former CEO Suren Goonewardene. Airtel offers mobile voice, data and enterprise solutions these countries and claims a 3G presence of 70% within its network in Sri Lanka, and a user base of 8.35 million in Bangladesh. Sale of towers: In July, Airtel raised $1.3 billion from the sale of mobile towers in five countries in Africa to Helios Towers, IHS Holding Limited and American Tower Company. The company added that the proceeds would go towards reducing the $10 billion debt used in its African operations in 2010. Interestingly,…
