Despite announcing exclusive talks with France’s Orange to sell four of its telecom units in Africa, Bharti Airtel has claimed that it does not have any plans of exiting African telecom market completely.

At present, 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. However, the operator has emphasised that the operations put up for sale represent a relatively small percentage of its overall Africa business. In fact, sale of its operations in four countries would help it “establish a sharper focus” on the remaining African countries. Moreover, the sale of operations in four countries, which accounted for around 16 per cent of Airtel’s African revenue in 2014, is expected to help the operator cut down its debt burden significantly.

Earlier, in 2010, Airtel had purchased Kuwait-based Zain Telecom’s loss making African operations across 17 countries for $10.7 billion. Owing to high cost of operations, the operator has so far been unable to turnaround its African business.