Bharti Telecom has acquired Zain Group after both parties concluded terms, paving way for the Indian telecommunication giant to take a giant step towards becoming a global telecom operator.

The transaction makes Bharti Telecom one of the five largest mobile operators in the world. The cost involved in the acquisition of Zain's operations in 15 countries was $10.7 billion.

With this acquisition, Airtel brand would truly go global with a footprint that covers over 1.8 billion people.

Bharti would be among the five largest mobile operators in the world, with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa and a customer base of over 180 million.

The transaction is the largest ever cross-border deal in emerging markets and would result in combined revenues of over $12.4 billion and Earnings Before Interest (EBITDA) of over $4.7 billion, based on the last audited results.

Standard Chartered Bank served as the Lead Adviser to Bharti, while Barclays Capital acted as the Joint Lead Advisor.

SBI Group acted as the Lead Onshore Advisor, with Global Investment House, Kuwait as the Regional Advisor.

Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, SBI Group, ANZ, BNP, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation were Bharti's financiers for the deal.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of 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 15 countries as well as the Government of India for their overwhelming support to this landmark event.

“This would further strengthen the historic Indo-Africa economic & social ties and provide a big boost to South-South cooperation, he added.        

Bharti, which has been working towards its vision of expanding into Africa, is committed to contributing to the growth of telecom sector in the region by providing affordable services that touch the common man.

“We also promise our customers in Africa a superior brand experience and portfolio of innovative products & services.

“We would like to welcome over 6500 talented and highly qualified professionals to the Bharti family and look forward to working with them to take these operations from strength to strength.

We would like to thank the Zain team for their professionalism, which enabled us to close this transaction in a record time.”  

Asaad Al-Banwan, Chairman of Zain said, “We whole-heartedly wish Bharti Airtel great success in continuing the development of telecommunications across the African continent, and we are confident that people of Africa will welcome such a committed and reputable telecom powerhouse.”

Bharti's acquisition of Zain's African mobile services operations covers 15 countries with a total customer base of over 42 million.

The total population base is over 450 million with telecom penetration of approximately 32 percent.

Bharti has acquired operations in many countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.  

Zain is the market leader in 10 out of the 15 countries and second in 4 countries.

Bharti Airtel, which has over 180 million customers, has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world.


Source: modern ghana