Bharti Airtel attained a new high with the completion of acquisition of Zain Group’s operations in 15 African countries. The deal is valued at $ 10.7 billion and extends Bharti Airtel’s footprint to cover 1.8 billion of the world’s population.

India’s leading operator, Bharti’s subscriber base now touches over 180 million post completion of deal and its operations now span over 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Zain’s subscriber base in the mentioned areas totals more than 42 million. The new areas of operations for Bharti are Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Zain was the market leader in 10 of these countries and second in 4 countries.

Bharti Airtel’s revenues post completion of the deal will be $ 12.4 billion with an EBITDA of over $ 4.7 billion. It is now among the top five telecom operators across the world.

On the occasion, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, 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 fifteen countries as well as the government of India for their overwhelming support to this landmark event. This will further strengthen the historic Indo-Africa economic & social ties and provide a big boost to South-South cooperation.        

 The deal will result in 6,500 employees of Zain’s Africa operations coming under the Bharti Airtel fold.

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

 Standard Chartered Bank served as the Lead Advisor for Bharti, Barclays Capital as the Joint Lead Advisor and SBI Group as the Lead Onshore Advisor. Global Investment House, Kuwait was the Regional Advisor.

Bharti’s financiers for the deal included 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 are Bharti’s financiers for the deal.

Herbert Smith LLP was International Legal Advisor to Bharti, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP was the Financing Arrangement Legal Advisor and AZB & Partners was the Indian Legal Advisor. Ernst & Young was the Accounting advisor.