Bharti Airtel plans to increase its stake in its African unit through Airtel Africa, as part of a stock swap worth $2.9 billion.

As part of this, the board of the Indian telecoms giant has approved the issuance of up to 146.8 million shares at 1,923 rupees ($20) to Indian Continent Investment Ltd (ICIL), which is an investment firm that operates as a holding vehicle for Bharti Global, owned by Bharti and controlled by founder Sunil Bharti Mittal.

ICIL’s stake in Airtel Africa is 16.3 percent.

As reported by Forbes, the new shares are being issued at a 9.5 percent premium to Bharti Airtel’s last closing price, while the Airtel Africa shares are being acquired at an 11.6 percent discount to their last closing price.

“The board recognized that the transaction is in line with the objective of consolidating or strengthening shareholding in a strategic subsidiary,” said the company in the statement. “The transaction is accretive to the EPS of Airtel India with additional earnings outweighing the dilution.”

The planned share swap will increase Bharti’s stake in Airtel Africa to 79 percent.

Founded in 2010, Airtel Africa provides telecoms services across 14 African countries including Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Airtel’s total subscriber base across these markets sits at around 185 million.

For Mittal, the increase in stake represents a strategy to expand Bharti’s telecoms business outside of India. The company has notably built its stake in British telco giant BT to 24.5 percent. Bharti also owns a stake in UK-based satellite company OneWeb.