Mastercard to invest $100m in Airtel Africa’s mobile money business

Airtel Africa said on Thursday that Mastercard will invest $100m in its mobile money business, Airtel Mobile Commerce.

The transaction values the AMC business at $2.65bn on a cash and debt free basis. Proceeds from the deal will be used to reduce group debt and invest in network and sales infrastructure, Airtel said.

Mastercard will hold a minority stake in AMC once the transaction completes, with Airtel Africa continuing to hold the majority share.

Alongside the investment, Airtel and Mastercard have extended commercial agreements and signed a new commercial framework which will deepen their partnerships across numerous geographies and areas such as card issuance, payment gateway, payment processing, merchant acceptance and remittance solutions, among others.

Chief executive officer Raghunath Mandava said: "With today's announcement we are pleased to welcome Mastercard as an investor in our mobile money business, joining The Rise Fund which we announced two weeks ago.

"This is a continuation of our strategy to increase the minority shareholding in our mobile money business with the further intention to list this business within four years. We are significantly strengthening our existing strategic relationship with Mastercard to help us both realise the full potential from the substantial opportunity to improve financial inclusion across our countries of operation."

At 0810 BST, the shares were up 2.6% at 81.36p.