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Mergers and Acquistions News

Categories: Telecoms

June 8th 2010, 14:11PM

Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel has completed the acquisition of Zain's African operations in deal worth over $10 billion (£6.9 billion).

The deal will make Bharti the fifth-largest wireless operator based on subscribers and is thought to be the biggest ever cross-border deal in emerging markets.

Bharti will pay $9 billion (£6.3 billion) for the Kuwait-based firm's holdings in 15 African countries and take on a further $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) worth of debt.

The acquisition of Zain's African mobile services operations will give Bharti access to a customer base of over 42 million in Africa, with a total population base of over 450 million and telecom penetration of approximately 32 per cent, according to the company.

Bharti has increased its worldwide subscriber base to over 180 million with the deal.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director for Bharti, said: "We are delighted at the closure of this transformational deal for India and Bharti.

"We would like to express our deep gratitude and thank the governments of all the fifteen countries as well as the government of India."

Zain recently announced the expansion of its "ground-breaking" One Network platform to South Africa in a strategic partnership with Cell C.

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