The Hindu : Business : Bharti Airtel to close Zain Africa deal soon

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Bharti Airtel to close Zain Africa deal soon

Special Correspondent

Completes
due diligence for the $10.7 b acquisition

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Thursday said that due diligence regarding the acquisition of Zain's African operations has been completed and that the deal would be signed soon. The $10.7 billion deal will lead to Bharti Airtel acquiring Zain Africa BV.

“Further to our announcement regarding the acquisition of Zain Africa BV, we would like to report that the due diligence has been completed. Bharti is now working with Zain towards finalising the definitive agreements which will address all key terms and findings arising out of the due diligence. Definitive agreements are expected to be signed soon. Upon signing, the parties will move towards obtaining any required approvals,” Bharti Airtel said in statement.

Bharti Airtel has already secured the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for this transaction. On completion, the Indian firm would be required to pay another $700 million to Zain after a year, while taking a load of $1.7 billion debt associated with the African assets.

Similarly, in a statement issued on Wednesday, the Kuwait-based telecom company had said that “The (Zain) board is pleased to report that due diligence process has been completed and the parties are finalising definitive agreements, which are expected to be signed in the coming days.”

The deal will give big push to Bharti Airtel's plans to expand beyond Asia, where it has operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It has been trying hard to enter the fast-growing African telecom market.

Though its earlier efforts to acquire South African telecom firm MTN failed twice, this acquisition will give the Indian telecom company foothold in 15 African nations at one go. The two businesses combined will have more than 16.5-crore subscribers with total revenue of $13 billion.

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