Six global investors, including Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel, SoftBank Group, invest $1.25bn in Airtel Africa, a holding company in the telecommunications sector and a subsidiary of Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel. The fundraising, through a primary equity issuance, now values the telecommunications company at $4.4bn and will be used to reduce existing debt of about $5bn and grow its Africa operations. Airtel Africa subsequently intends an Initial Public Offering and use the proceeds primarily for further reduction of debt. “The transaction will help us further deleverage our balance sheet and boost our capacity to upgrade networks, expand coverage in different markets and achieve rapid growth of Airtel Money across our operations,” said Raghunath Mandava, chief executive of Bharti Airtel’s Africa unit.