Shares in India’s Bharti Airtel edged higher Tuesday on reports it would sign a US$10,7bn deal to acquire the African telecommunications assets of Kuwait’s Zain.
Officials at the New Delhi-based firm declined to comment, citing confidentiality rules, but Kuwait’s Al-Watan daily reported the signing would take place Tuesday at the headquarters of Zain Africa in Amsterdam.
Shares of Bharti Airtel rose nearly 1% on the Mumbai stock exchange at midday on Tuesday, outpacing an overall weaker market, on the back of the reports.
Once the deal, under which Bharti will acquire Zain’s operations in 15 African countries, is complete, the Indian company will become the seventh-largest telecoms player in the world.
Zain’s chairman Asaad Al-Banwan, CEO Nabil bin Salama and Bharti’s chairman-founder Sunil Bharti Mittal will attend the signing, according to the Al-Watan report.
Even before the deal was clinched, though, reports said Gabon had objected to the sale of Zain’s assets in the country to Bharti because of Zain’s alleged noncompliance with regulatory norms.
Analysts have warned that regulatory issues in the countries where Bharti is slated to take over Zain’s networks could complicate the Indian company’s integration of the new assets.
With the acquisition of Zain’s African operations, excluding networks in Morocco and Sudan, the combined entity would have more than 165m subscribers.
The signing of the deal would fulfill Bharti’s dream of gaining a foothold in Africa, one of the world’s least developed telecoms markets, after two failed attempts to tie up with SA’s MTN. — Sapa-AFP
- Image credit: World Economic Forum
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