Bharti Airtel Readies For African Immigration Through Zain, Now Ranks 5thBharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom firm completed acquisition of Kuwait based Zain Telecom’s African business for $10.7 billion (about Rs 48,000 crore).

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This buyout not only makes Bharti to put footprint in Africa, but also positioned it as world’s fifth largest wireless company with operations across 18 countries and a subscriber base of around 180 million.

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Of the $10.7 billion enterprise value of Zain, Bharti will be paying $8.3 billion upfront and $700 million after a year. It would also take over approximately $1.7 billion of Zain’s debts as on December 31, 2009.

Of the $8.3 billion paid to Zain, Bharti has raised debt from a consortium of foreign banks and State Bank of India with the lead-arranger and lead-advisor Standard Chartered Bank committing the highest amount $1.3 billion, followed by Barclays at $900 million.

The rest of the co-advisors — ANZ, BNP, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation — have allocated $600 million each. State Bank of India has agreed to an up to USD one billion loan in rupee terms.

“This transaction is a pioneering step towards south-south cooperation and strengthening of ties between India and Africa. With this acquisition, Bharti Airtel will be transformed into a truly global telecom company with operations across 18 countries, fulfilling our vision of building a world-class multinational,” Mittal said on Tuesday.