Bharti starts drawing down funds for Zain deal

Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom firm, said it has started tapping its bankers for funds to pay for the acquisition of Zain's African assets, bringing it closer to concluding the $10.7-billion deal.

"Further to our announcement on 30 March 2010 regarding the proposed acquisition of Zain Africa BV, Bharti Airtel Ltd is pleased to report that it has initiated the funds drawdown for the completion of the said transaction," Bharti said in a statement.

In March, Bharti Airtel tied up $8.3 billion from a clutch of foreign banks and State Bank of India to fund the acquisition of Zain telecom's African operations. On completion of the deal, Bharti would be required to pay another $700 million to the seller after a year, while taking a load of $1.7 billion debt associated with the African assets.

A company official said Bharti is asking its bankers to be ready for the funds transfer as and when the acquisition takes place.

The lead arrangers are Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, SBI Group, ANZ, BNP, Bank of America-Merril Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBF, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. Bharti's lead arranger and lead advisor Standard Chartered Bank has committed the highest amount of $1.3 billion, followed by $0.9 billion by Barclays.

A Bharti Airtel spokesperson had earlier said the approval process is progressing well and the company expects the deal closure to happen soon.