Bharti Airtel is in talks with France’s Orange SA for the sale of four of its African subsidiaries. Airtel is looking to sell its operations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone, all Francophone countries, or non-English speaking markets in Africa. The operator has been making losses since its entry in Africa in 2010.

Airtel is looking for a valuation between $900 million and $1 billion for its assets in Africa. The four countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone contributed about $650 to $660 million to Airtel Africa’s top line of $4.71 billion as of March end 2015. Further, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the operator from the four countries during the said period stood at $180 million in the period.

Airtel’s net loss in Africa for the fourth quarter of the year ended March 2015 widened to $183 million from $105 million a year back mainly on account of forex losses. The company’s Africa revenue declined by 12.6 per cent in the quarter ended March 2015 over last year to $1 billion, from $1.14 billion in the corresponding quarter in 2014. The growth was impacted by currency depreciation of 18.4 per cent. At present, Airtel has a subscriber base of 76.3 million subscribers in Africa.

Earlier, in 2010, Airtel had purchased Kuwait-based Zain Telecom’s loss making African operations across 17 countries for $10.7 billion. The operator has been unable to turn around operations in Africa despite appointing a new Africa head, Christian De Faria in 2014.