India's Bharti Airtel's recent finalization of purchasing Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain's African assets has analysts across the continent confident that the continent is yet to see the rapid growth and success that has met a number of countries. The final payment to Zain was made on June 23 to complete the $9 billion deal to acquire all the company's African assets save for those in Sudan and Morocco. Across the continent, analysts believe the new acquisition makes Bharti arguably one of the top companies in the telecom sector continent wide. “This deal is going to be huge because it means that across 15 countries Bharti is now able to streamline and start to really establish infrastructure on a massive scale,” said Barry Youlsen, a British analyst based in Algiers who is currently working on a consultancy project with the Algerian government on attracting IT and telecom investment to the North African nation. “What Bharti is now able to do is arguably on an equal footing to MTN of South Africa so it will be exciting to see what is going to happen,” he added. “The company has received the final payment of USD 700 million from the sale of its African Assets in accordance with the agreement of the transaction, in which the sum was to be paid one year after the transaction, conditional on the completion of both the final approvals and the sale and transfer of property,” Zain said in a statement. Last year, Bharti Airtel had acquired Zain Telecom's Africa operations for USD 10.7 billion to become the world's fifth largest mobile operator with a total 180 million subscribers in 18 nations in Asia and Africa. “The funds will further strengthen the company's financial position although it must be noted that the amount was calculated as profits in the financial statements of the second quarter of 2010, and therefore will not have any effect on the financial statements for the current quarter of 2011,” Zain added. For completing the deal, Bharti had paid USD 7.9 billion and the balance USD 400 million from the total upfront payment was done latter. BM
