South Asian telecom giant Bharti Airtel is working on raising $6-7 billion in debt to finance an "all cash" acquisition of Zain Telecom's African operations, said banking sources privy to the development.On Monday, Bharti announced that it was in exclusive talks to acquire Kuwait-based Zain's African unit in a deal estimated at $10.7 billion.
Bharti's balance sheet appears comfortable for funding the deal, said brokerage Motilal Oswal in a report.
Bharti Airtel also recently raised cash from Singapore Telecommunications, who last year said it will increase stake in the Indian telco to 31.95% from 30.43%. SingTel has an agreement to buy shares in Bharti Telecom, which is the sponsor of Bharti Airtel, in tranches till November 2010 which could mean an additional investment of up to $641.3 million. Full Story
Related:
Why is Bharti chasing Zain's Africa assets? - Moneycontrol.com
SingTel part of Africa proposal - TradingMarkets.com
Bharti eyes Africa in $11bn bid for Zain assets - Creamer Media's Engineering News
Will Bharti Airtel get lucky in Africa this time? - Asian Correspondent
Bharti founder hopes to be third time lucky with Africa bid - Africasia
Bharti founder eyes Africa market - AFP
