Bharti, Zain likely to sign LoI this week: report

Bharti Airtel and Zain are likely to sign a Letter of Intent (LoI) by the end of this week for the proposed $10.7-billion deal for the African assets of the Kuwait-based firm.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai today said both companies are expected to ink the LoI for the transaction by the end of this week. However, the report was not sourced to anyone.

Bharti and Zain are in exclusively talks till March 25, for the proposed deal. As per the transaction, Bharti would buy Zain's African assets except those in Morocco and Sudan.

As part of the deal, Bharti would be paying $9 billion for the assets and the rest would be towards the debt of the Kuwaiti firm.

"The total agreed enterprise valuation of $10.7 billion is likely to result in a total payout of around $9 billion based on the estimated net debt of about $1.7 billion as on December 31, 2009," Bharti Airtel had said.

Recently, Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal said he hoped the deal would be completed by the end of April. "The deal is on fast track. My guess is that we should be able to close the deal by end of April," Mittal had told business news channel.

"We are only seeking blessings, no regulatory approval is needed for the deal in India. This is a much cleaner deal than MTN... No dual listings; it has no complications as was in case of the MTN," he had said.