(Ecofin Agency) - Indian telecom group Bharti Airtel and telecom infrastructure manager Eaton Towers announced this 27 October 2015 the successful completion of the sale of about 700 telecom towers in Burkina Faso. The success of this operation follows the failure of last week when both parties failed to complete the sale of Bharti Airtel’s Malawian towers. With this new sale, the telecom operator has thus succeeded in selling its physical infrastructure in eight countries. This represents a total of 9,000 towers already sold out the approximate 14,000 the group has in Africa.

With Eaton Towers, this brings to 2,500 the number of telecom towers Bharti Airtel has already sold in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Burkina Faso. This new transfer thus adds some USD million to the USD 107 billion the company announced having already earned from the sale of its towers in seven countries on 20 October 2015. Many other operations are underfoot with other infrastructure managers such as American Tower Co, HIS and Helios Towers. Millions of dollars in sight to address its sizeable debt of USD 9 billion.

Glad of the success of this new acquisition, Terry Rhodes, CEO of Eaton Towers, estimated that the company has now expanded enough to offer infrastructure and shared telecommunications solutions. “The successful conclusion of our operations in 4 countries with Airtel, in addition to the buying agreement on 2,000 towers of Mobinil in Egypt means that Eaton Towers will now have other 6,000 towers and the most diverse portfolio in Africa”, he added happily.