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