NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel , India’s largest telco is considering the merger of some its African interests as it attempts to cut $12 billion debt pile, company Chariman Sunil Mittal told BloombergQuint in an interview during World Economic Forum , Davos.The company is capable of reducing its footprint in Africa within a year but it is unclear as to how many of the company’s units would be affected by the move.Airtel has sold its Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso operations and some of its tower businesses in order to reorganize assets it bought in 2010 in a $9 billion deal with Kuwait’s largest mobile-phone operator.Meanwhile, the telco is also considering the possibility of selling all or part of its stake in the company’s tower unit Bharti Infratel.In the quarter ended September, Bharti’s African unit lost $91 million against $170 million loss in the previous year.After facing a series of quarterly losses in the African unit, the company is attempting to cut costs. Also, the telco is facing tough competition in the home market of India which has called for such move.Some analysts have predicted a reduction of seven percent in the potential revenue of telcos over the next two quarters due to ongoing price-war between operators in India after the entry of Reliance Jio According to reports, Bharti has entered final stages of discussion with Telenor to acquire its local unit, and it is likely to finalize the deal by the end of February. The company seems to be building a war chest to combat rivals including Reliance Jio by reorganizing its assets and getting rid of debt pile.It is being speculated that the company may also be hit by demonetisation leading to an 8% to 10% impact on revenue, as told by Mittal.Airtel's operations are running across 15 African markets including Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.