Airtel Kenya and Telkom have signed an agreement to merge operations. The telecommunication companies on Friday agreed to merge their respective mobile enterprise business under a joint venture company called Airtel-Telkom.
Airtel Kenya’s Network Chief Executive, Prasanta Sarma will now be the CEO and Mugo Kibati, the CEO of Telkom Kenya will be the chairman. At completion, the two companies will merge mobile, enterprise and carrier businesses in Kenya. The real estate portfolio and specific government services of Telkom Kenya will not be part of the combined entity.
See Also: Qatar Invests $200 million in Airtel Africa, a Subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited
Airtel said “The enterprise and carrier services businesses should benefit from a large fibre footprint and an increased number of enterprise customers, including both large corporations and SMEs which would have access to a diverse portfolio of world-class solutions.”
If the merger goes through, Kenya’s second and third-largest telecom operators will command 14.6 million mobile subscribers, although this is small compared to the 29.94 million subscribers with Safaricom, the current market leader. (Statistic recorded end of September, 2018)
Data from Communications Authority of Kenya show that Airtel Kenya had a market share of 22.3% while Telkom had 9% market share. Safaricom, the lead telecom company in Kenya has a market share of 64.2%. This merger could grant them a combined share of 33.3%.
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