Airtel Kenya
Company typePublic
IndustryTelecommunications
Area served
Kenya
ProductsMobile telephony
Broadband
Internet services
ParentAirtel Africa
Websitewww.airtelkenya.com

Airtel Kenya Ltd (commonly known as Airtel), 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]

As of 2020 its CEO was Prashanta Das Sharma.[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.[6]

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[8] that Airtel Kenya was considering a merger with Telkom Kenya. Airtel Kenya backed out of the talks in June 2018.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Airtel Kenya Company Overview". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  2. ^ Sector statistics report 2020-2021 ca.go.ke
  3. ^ "Airtel eats into Safaricom, Telkom Kenya's market". Business Daily. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  4. ^ Kachwanya, Kennedy (23 February 2010). "From Kencell to Celtel to Zain ..now what next Bharrrrrr". Kachwanya.com. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Prasanta Das Sarma appointed Managing Director of Airtel Kenya". Africa Business Communities. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b "India's Bharti Airtel completes acquisition of Zain Africa". Reuters. 8 June 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Airtel acquires Zain's Africa business for $10.7 billion". NDTV.com. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Telkom Kenya and Airtel seek merger to take on Safaricom: sources". Reuters. 10 April 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  9. ^ Kamau, Macharia; Wafula, Paul (10 June 2018). "Airtel hangs up on merger plan with Telkom Kenya". The Standard. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
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