IOC in pact with Bharti Airtel

[praveen]

India’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel has forged an exclusive alliance with the country’s flagship oil company — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) — that will enable the telco to access 18,000 retail outlets and 5,500 Indane cooking gas distributors of the oil giant.

The deal also envisages that Airtel can use IOC outlets to sell its products, collect bills, set up PCO facilities and even open Bharti retail outlets on an exclusive basis. Besides, Airtel can also use IOC retail outlets for its branding exercise.

Confirming the development, Bharti Airtel president for mobile services Sanjay Kapoor told ET: “IOC has over 18,000 outlets along with 5,500 Indane distributors. The company provides services to 48-million plus households. We see a lot of synergies into entering into an exclusive deal with Indian Oil.”

This is the second major marketing and distribution announcement by Bharti Airtel during this month. Earlier this month, Bharti entered into a strategic partnership with state-run Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (Iffco) to offer telephony services to farmers in the country’s hinterland.