Bharti Airtel said on Thursday that it has initiated fund raising exercise towards proposed acquisition of Zain’s Africa operations.

“Further to our announcement dated March 30, 2010 regarding the proposed acquisition of Zain Africa BV, Bharti Airtel Limited is pleased to report that it has initiated the funds drawdown for the completion of the said transaction,” said the company.

Bharti Airtel has already arranged for $ 8.3 billion from foreign banks and SBI for the deal. On completion of the acquisition, Bharti is required to pay another $ 700 million to Zain after a year and also take a load of $1.7 billion for the debt associated with Zain’s Africa operations.

For the deal, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, SBI Group, ANZ, BNP, Bank of America-Merril Lynch, Credit Agricole CIB, DBF, HSBC, bank of Tokyo are the lead bankers.