Bharti ties up $8.3 billion debt for Zain Africa buy

Telcom major Bharti Airtel Limited has tied up a loan of $8.3 billion (Rs37,607 crore) from a consortium of foreign banks and State Bank of India (SBI) to fund the proposed acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain telecom's African assets.

''Bharti Airtel is pleased to announce that the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for the proposed acquisition of Zain's African unit (Zain Africa BV) has been successfully tied up,'' the company said in a statement on Sunday.

''The financing was oversubscribed, with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount,'' it added.

The India's largest telecom service provider had in February entered into exclusive talks with Zain to acquire all of the latter's African assets, potentially worth around $10.7 billion (See: Bharti all set to acquire Zain Africa BV).

The transaction does not include Zain's operations in Morocco and Sudan and remains subject to due diligence, customary regulatory approvals and signing of final transaction documentation.

Bharti's lead-arranger and lead-advisor Standard Chartered Bank has committed $1.3 billion followed by $0.9 billion by Barclays, the company added.
The other banks include ANZ, BNP, Bank of America-Merril Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.