Airtel Business inked a deal with Indian state-owned telecoms equipment manufacturer and supplier ITI to jointly target enterprises in regulated sectors aiming to adopt the latest digital technology.

ITI designs, manufactures and deploys a wide range of telecommunications and enterprise IT equipment for organisations in India, while Airtel’s unit offers connectivity and a variety of complementary products in the market.

By combining the partners’ respective strengths, they aim to help companies address digital transformation challenges including legacy system modernisation and meet new business demands through adoption of the latest technology.

The pair plan to provide what they define as “future-ready solutions” for enterprise connectivity, sovereign cloud and data centre services, IoT, AI and cybersecurity.

In a joint statement, they cited segments including banking and public sector organisations as likely targets for their combined offering, which is set to integrate industrial IoT asset tracking, AI analytics and cybersecurity with connectivity, cloud and data centre infrastructure.

Airtel Business CEO Sharat Sinha said the companies have a “shared ambition to create future-ready technology solutions that strengthen business continuity, unlock innovation and support India’s secure digital-first future”.

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Bharti Airtel edged closer to completing a deal which would take its ownership of Airtel Africa to 79%, winning the backing of almost all of its shareholders to acquire an additional 16% interest in the business.

In a stock exchange filing, Bharti Airtel described the near unanimous support for the deal as reinforcing its confidence in the strategic rationale for the move and potential for long-term benefits.

The deal would see the company issue shares to Indian Continent Investment in exchange for its 16% stake in Airtel Africa and was announced in May.

Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal noted “Airtel Africa is central to our growth strategy and is well positioned to deliver robust performance with an increasing contribution to our consolidated revenues”.

“As we look ahead, we see significant potential in Africa for long-term shareholder value creation,” he added.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Airtel Africa is listed on the London Stock Exchange with a secondary listing in Nigeria. It operates in 14 countries across the continent.

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