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NEW DELHI: Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel said on Sunday it had raised US$8.3 billion to finance its proposed takeover of the African unit of Kuwait's Zain telecom group.
"The financing was oversubscribed, with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount," the company said in a statement.
Those pledging funds included Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays, Credit Agricole CIB and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ as well as India's largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India, the statement said.
Last month Bharti, India's largest mobile firm, announced a 10.7-billion-dollar bid to buy the African unit of Zain, aiming to enter one of the world's last high-growth markets.
Bharti, which is 32-per-cent owned by Singapore Telecom, and Zain, Kuwait's biggest phone company, then agreed to hold exclusive talks until March 25 to conclude the deal.
The takeover will be one of India's biggest cross-border deals and will give Bharti a significant foothold in the African cellular market, where just 36 out of every 100 people own a mobile phone.
The company has been looking abroad for subscribers as competition heats up at home - India now has 14 cellular operators compared with just two state-owned telecom players a decade ago.
The country has 525 million mobile users, according to latest government figures.
If the deal goes through, Bharti which already has 125 million Indian subscribers, would get 42 million subscribers in 15 African countries from Burkina Faso to Zambia.
- AFP/sc
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