Indian telco Bharti to pay $9b for Zain’s African assets
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel has clarified that it is likely to pay $9 billion and not $10.7 billion for Zain Group’s African assets. According to the company, total agreed enterprise valuation of $10.7 billion is likely to result in a total payout of around $9 billion. In other words, the $10.7 billion valuation includes net debt of around $1.7 billion.
The company has made it clear that that $700 million of the purchase amount was not due until one year after the deal closed. Besides, both the companies have also agreed to a break-fee of $150 million, payable by either side on terms and conditions customary to a deal of this nature and size.
The Bharti’s share price on Monday closed down 9.2% and continued its losing streak falling to 4.5% to 272.45 rupee ($5.92) on Tuesday due to the high price.
Bharti keen to enter African market by buying Zain’s African assets
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: By seizing on a potential $9 billion deal with Kuwait’s Zain, Bharti Airtel appears determined to wade into a market loaded with poverty, promise and major legal tussles but the deal if completed, would catapult the company into the ranks of major telecom operators in Africa. Thus Bharti would have significant footholds in two continental markets- India and Africa.
While Zain appears to be keen seller, Airtel too expects to get a head start over those trying to buy scattered operations or acquire licenses in different African countries.
However, Bharti isn’t the only telecom operator eager to enter the African market. $2.5 billion has been bid by a consortium involving China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd for the former state telecoms monopoly in Nigeria.
Bharti Airtel & Limelight Networks sign CDN Services deal
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Indian telco Bharti Airtel has signed a partnership agreement with Limelight Networks for Content Delivery Network (CDN) services in India. Through this agreement, Bharti Airtel will be able to deliver rich content from Indian publishers to consumers accessing the Internet through 900 last mile networks which are connected to Limelight Networks’ global platform.
Traffic is routed by Limelight over a private fibre optic network rather than the Internet, thus providing faster delivery.
It has been estimated that India’s Indian CDN market will grow to US $100 million by 2014.
Airtel’s shares slips 10% as it inks deal with Zain (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel’s deal with Kuwaiti telecom Zain for its African cellular assets has been given thumbs down by the brokerages as the company shares slipped 10 per cent. $10.7 billion offer is expected to give financial strain to the company.
According to the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, the valuation seems rich, the growth outlook for Zain’s African portfolio appears unexciting and a potential deal could materially stress Bharti’s balance sheet.
An announcement was made by Bharti offering to buy African assets of Kuwait’s Zain telecom for $10.7 billion.
Bharti Airtel added 2.85m GSM users; Vodafone adds 2.28 million users
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 2.85 million GSM subscribers have been added by India’s largest telecom services company by users, Bharti Airtel while 2.74 million users have been added by Vodafone Essar, the country’s third-largest mobile phone operator by subscribers in the month of January.
About 2.28 million subscribers have been added by Idea Cellular while Aircel added 2.01 million users during the month.
Among the state-run telecom companies, 2.23 million users have been added by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. in January while Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. added 45,067 users.
Zain receives offer to sell African networks
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: An unnamed group has offered K¬uwait based Zain to acquire its operations in Africa excluding Morocco and Sudan. Though the name has not been divulged by the company, the local media group suggests that the company might be India’s Bharti Airtel.
It has been reported that Bharti Airtel has offered around US$10.7 billion for the former Celtel networks while Zain acquired the pan-Africa Celtel for $3.4 billion in 2005.
Over a year, Zain has been seeking to either sell the African networks or take an outside investor into the whole company.
Bharti going after Zain with a $10.7 bln offer
Bharti is eyeing the african market all over again, with an offer of $10.7 billion for Zain’s african operations.
With acquisition talks abuzz, Zain’s share price on the Kuwait Stock Exchange has risen by more than a fifth in about a week, raising it’s value to $16.2 billion.
Zain – Recent Developments
- Earlier in Feb, Zain CEO Al-Barrak handed his resignation to the Chairman of the board. The New Zain CEO is ex-minister Nabil Bin Salama.
- In August 2009, Reliance Communications started talks to buy Zain’s African operations.
- Etisalat was also a suitor for a 51% stake in Zain at the “right price”.
- Zain operates in 23 countries. Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund is Zain’s biggest shareholder with a 24.6% stake and the Kharafi Group is the second largest shareholder with 13.7%.
-In 2008, Zain reported revenues of 2 billion dinars (USD 6.96 billion) and net profit of 322 million dinars. Current liabilities stood at 1.5 billion dinars at the end of March 2009.
- In May 2009, Zain announced a rare cut of 2,000 jobs of its 15,500 workforce, signalling that the expansion was probably being re-visited. Zain has spent in excess of USD 12 billion in Africa since 2005.
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India’s Tata Tele outpaced Airtel, Vodafone in subscribers addition
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have been outpaced by a smaller rival Tata Teleservices for a sixth straight month in mobile additions. The firm continued to gain share in the world’s fastest-growing but cut-throat mobile market by adding 3 million mobile subscribers in January, taking its total user base to more than 60 million.
Tata Tele which 26 percent owned by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, would shift from sixth position in the country’s mobile market to the fifth position.
ndia’s number one mobile operator Bharti Airtel added 2.85 million mobile subscribers in January to have a total of 121.7 million. Vodafone Essar, which holds the third- rank gained 2.74 million in January, taking its total to 94.1 million.
Airtel awards network expansion contract to NSN (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: US$700 million network expansion contract has been awarded to Nokia Siemens network by Indian telco Bharti Airtel. Network planning, implementation and project management are included in the contract along with handling of local logistics and materials and system integration for the base station sites.
Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh, Bihar & Jharkhand, Orissa, Kolkata and West Bengal are the eight circles to be covered in the GSM network expansion and where NSN already provides equipment and managed services for Bharti Airtel.
The capacity of the network will be improved and the efficiency of the spectrum will be increased as a result of the project.
Indian telco Bharti Airtel adds 2.85 mln users in Jan
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 2.85 million mobile subscribers have been added by India’s top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, in the month of January, thus taking the total subscribers numbers to 121.7 million.
2.74 million mobile users in January have been signed up by third-ranked Vodafone Essar, to boost its total to 94.1 million.
Even the fifth-ranked Idea Cellular gained 2.28 million mobile subscribers, taking its total to 59.9 million.
