Bharti Airtel is doubling down on Africa and UK businesses

India’s second largest telecom company Bharti AirtelBy doubling down on its bets in Africa and the UK, it joins a growing number of companies from the South Asian country looking to expand their global footprint.

Bharti Airtel called on Thursday Shareholder approval regarding the increase Shares listed in the UK Airtel Africa In its statement to the stock exchange, the Indian company stated that this rate increased from 62.7 percent to 79 percent in the cashless share swap agreement worth 282.22 billion rupees ($2.9 billion).

Africa is a “high growth potential” market for the Indian company and will account for more than a quarter of Bharti Airtel’s consolidated revenue in the financial year ending March 2026, it said.

Bharti also trying to increase its stake British multinational telecommunications company IT It was reduced from 24.95 percent to just under 30 percent to achieve greater “economic impact” but not a full takeover, Reuters said in a report on Friday.

“It may increase its stake by up to 29.9% to give BT more economic clout, but it does not plan to pursue a full takeover,” according to the report. A Bharti spokesman told Reuters that the company “has no plans to increase its shares at this time.”

BT Group and Bharti Airtel did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The reported move comes at a time when overseas stock markets are outperforming domestic indices, with the FTSE 100 rising almost 19% in the past year while India’s benchmark Nifty 50 is down more than 4%.

Bharti Airtel, India’s third-largest company by market capitalization, is among many major Indian companies exploring overseas investments.

Overseas investments by Indian companies on a 12-month basis ending January 2026 rose 2.6 times in two years to $35.8 billion, global brokerage Morgan Stanley said in a research note last month.

Bharti first invested in Africa in 2010. acquired telecom operations Bought Zain for $10.7 billion. Last year, Airtel Africa’s share, which provides telecommunications and mobile money services in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, increased by more than 78%, according to LSEG data.

In the filing, Bharti said the planned IPO of Airtel Mobile Commerce BV, a major subsidiary of Airtel Africa, could unlock “significant value” in the near future.

Bharti’s investment in IT has also paid off. It bought a 24.5% stake in BT for around $4 billion in 2024, and the British telecom group’s shares have risen 55% since then. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel’s shares are up just 3.4% over last year.