India's Bharti Airtel says to spend $1 bln per year in Africa

Reuters
Men make phone calls as they sit on a railing with Bharti Airtel billboards installed on it, along a sidewalk in Kolkata February 1, 2013. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

ABUJA (Reuters) - India's Bharti Airtel plans annual capital expenditure of $1 billion in the next few years and will focus on deepening investments in 17 African countries rather than entering new markets, Chief Executive Sunil Mittal told Reuters on Thursday. The telecoms firm is comfortable with its debt levels of 2.5-2.6 times EBITDA and is evaluating options for the sale, leaseback or sharing of its African transmission towers, Mittal said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Abuja, Nigeria.