MTN Group revealed it was evaluating an offer from Axian Telecom for its units in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry and Liberia, as it pushes on with plans to reorganise its business around its key markets.

Its openness to sell the three units was flagged by the operator in 2022, with the offer on the table confirmed during its financial results statement for Q1.

The suitor for the units already owns a number of assets on the continent including mobile businesses in Tanzania, Senegal, Togo and Zanzibar, along with a tower business in Uganda.

MTN’s potential divestment of some assets in Africa follows its exit from various markets in the Middle East, as it seeks to focus on its core operations.

As part of the latest financial update MTN also flagged it was “well progressed” on engagements to bring minority investors into its financial technology business, with this process expected to be completed in the current quarter.

Aside from strategic moves to reshape its business, MTN cited a difficult operating environment in Q1, highlighting inflation across its markets and the impact of currency rates on capex.

CEO Ralph Mupita also noted the continuation of problems with power outages in South Africa, which is impacting network availability in its home market.

Despite the issues, the company reported increases in subscriber numbers across the business, with active data subscribers up almost 12 per cent year-on-year and users of its mobile money service 5 per cent higher.

Revenue was ZAR55.5 billion ($2.9 billion), up 16 per cent. The company does not break out profit figures in Q1.