On 14, February 2010 a statement issued exclusively to the Ghana News Agency by Zain Ghana, said "the Board of Directors of Kuwait's Zain Group, after its meeting on February 14, 2010, issued a resolution to accept a proposal received from Bharti Airtel Limited (Bharti) to enter into exclusive discussions until 25 March 2010, regarding the sale of its African unit, Zain Africa BV." The offer was for $10.7 billion.
"This potential 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 said. The deal would provide Bharti access to 15 more countries in the region, adding around 40.1 million subscribers to its already 125 million-plus user base. With Bharti already having presence in five overseas markets,after the deal, it would increase its global presence across 20 regions. The combined revenue of the two entities would be around $12 billion.
The deal ran into hurdles after the government of the central African nation of Gabon had come out against the deal, but later approved the sale. The government of Congo Republic had also said Bharti-Zain deal broke law. There was also a dispute about minority ownership of Zain's operations in Nigeria, the biggest market in the deal. Minority shareholder Econet was seeking to overturn a 2006 deal by Zain - then called Celtel - in which it bought a majority stake in Nigerian mobile operator Vee Networks Ltd, now Zain Nigeria. On 8, June 2010, Bharti said the Nigeria ownership dispute had been settled.
On 8, June 2010, Bharti Airtel, in the largest ever telecom takeover by an Indian firm, completed a deal to buy Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's businesses in 15 African countries for $10.7 billion. Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said, "We are delighted at the closure of this transformational deal for India and Bharti Airtel. The transaction is the largest ever cross-border deal in an emerging market and will result in combined revenues of about $13 billion."
0 comments:
Post a Comment