Bharti acquires Zain for USD 10.7 bn;5th largest global player

New Delhi, June 8 (PTI) India's Bharti Airtel Tuesday
acquired Zain Telecom's Africa operations for USD 10.7 billion
to become the world's fifth largest mobile operator with 180
million subscribers in 18 Asian and African nations.
Announcing completion of the deal, Bharti Group Chairman
Sunil Mittal said, "The transaction is the largest ever
cross-border deal in an emerging market and will result in
combined revenues of about USD 13 billion."
Bharti finally entered Africa after aborting negotiations
twice for merger with MTN since 2008, with Mittal saying that
in Zain's case Airtel would have total control.
Zain Africa will now be 100 per cent subsidiary of Bharti
International, he said, adding that this deal will signal many
new investments that will go to Africa.
Currently, ChinaMobile is the world's largest mobile
player with a subscriber base of 522 million, followed by
Vodafone (348 million), Telefonica (206 million) and American
Movil (201 million).
The company will launch the Airtel brand in Zain's
operations in all the 15 nations in October this year.
Elaborating on Africa strategy, Manoj Kohli, looking
after Bharti's international operations, said that the company
has set a target of 100 million subscribers and USD five
billion revenue by 2012-13.
Bharti has acquired Zain Telecom's operations in 15
African nations, excluding Sudan and Morocco. Zain has
operations in 17 countries in the region and is claiming to be
the second largest operator after MTN.
Asked whether he regretted missing a deal with MTN twice
and whether that was his first choice, Mittal said, "...MTN
was the first opportunity that was available at that time. In
MTN's case, we would have had Board control but no management
control and no change in brand.
"There were compromises to be made (in MTN). Zain is the
second largest operator and that is the only difference. But
we will have full control and our own brand. We are fortunate
that we got the second chance (Zain) and got much better
deal," Mittal said.
"With this, we will have an unparallelled footprint in
one of the fastest developing regions in the world. We are
looking at more opportunities as we build more roll outs in
Africa," Mittal said.
The company has also reached a settlement with Broad
Communications, the single largest shareholder in Zain
Nigeria, following which its chief Otudeko would now head
Bharti's operations in Nigeria.
"There is no extra payment made for the settlement,"
Mittal said, adding that the company does not see any problem
with another small shareholder Econet Wireless in Nigeria.
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