Friday, May 7, 2010

BHARTI AIRTEL SET TO ACQUIRE ZAIN NIGERIA

BHARTI AIRTEL SET TO ACQUIRE ZAIN NIGERIA
Bharti Airtel, the largest Indian telecommunication provider, has concluded plans to buy the African assets of the Kuwaiti telecoms company, Zain, for about $10.7 billion, acquiring the Nigerian part as the first step.
The negotiation, which has been on after Vivendi pulled out of the deal recently, sees daylight as banks like Standard Chartered Bank and other financial houses threw their weight behind Bharti Airtel to acquire the telecommunication house.
The company’s Chairman, Sunnil Mittal visited Nigeria penultimate week to inspect the infrastructure on ground since Nigeria Zain will be the first to be acquired before spreading to other African countries.
Those who should know revealed that Bharti Airtel has tied up good amount of money and all logistics with Standard Chartered, Barclays, and other financial houses to speed up the acquisition process. It was also revealed that the dispute between Zain Nigeria and South Africa-based Econet Wireless Holdings — a minority shareholder — had been a complication in Indian group Bharti’s third effort to get its hands on a meaningful business in Africa until some Nigerians were sidelined in the transaction. The network, which started as Econet, later transformed into Celtel, then V-mobile before becoming Zain that is about to be sold to Bharti Airtel.

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