Johannesburg: Airtel is the only telecom company from India featuring on the list of top ten global brands admired most in Africa, according to a survey.
Airtel was placed at ninth on the list, beating Japanese car manufacturer Honda, the survey conducted by the African Business Awards said.
The list was headed by US-based Coca Cola, and dominated by other US and European brands, the only other Asian brands were Japan's Toyota and Samsung Electronics of Korea.
Except for Samsung which grew its brand value year-on-year by 121 per cent, Airtel's 30 per cent brand value increase was better than any of the others in the top ten, including that of leader Coca Cola, which grew just 27 per cent.
The brand valuation is based on estimated proportion of revenue that the parent company attributes to the brand on the African continent.
Airtel is India's largest telecom company with 192.22 million subscribers as of August-end. The company had a market capitalisation of Rs 1.28 lakh crore as on October 1.
The only other telecoms company on the list, in fourth position, was Vodafone, which operates in many more African countries than Airtel does.
The African Business Awards were launched by African Business magazine.
The full list is: 1. Coca Cola—US, 2. Shell—Netherlands 3. Samsung—South Korea 4. Vodafone—UK 5. Nike—US 6. Toyota—Japan 7. McDonald's—US 8. Pepsi Cola—US 9. Airtel—India 10. Honda—Japan.
