SingTel might support Bharti’s Zain acquisition (India)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Financial assistance might be offered by Singapore’s SingTel to India’s Bharti Airtel to support its attempt to buy Zain’s African mobile networks. The company owns just under a third of the Bharti Airtel. The company has cleared its intent not to inject money directly into Bharti Airtel and it would finance the acquisition via debt.

According to SingTel’s CEO International Lim Chuan Po, in one way or the other the company will be part of the funding as the company is a very substantial shareholder of Bharti and there’s no compulsive decision that it need to go and spend money to maintain its stake to avoid being diluted.

However, analysts feel that instead of going for indirect exposure to the markets via its holding in Bharti Airtel, SingTel should consider bidding for Zain’s assets directly.