Indian Telecom giant Sunil Mittal is making a third attempt to enter the African market. He has bid a price of about 10.7-billion-dollar to buy the African unit of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom. After two attempts to woo MTN, Airtel is looking for another door to the third world which has one of the least mobile phone penetration in the world.
This would still be one of India’s biggest international deals. Some of the experts feel that this will open the door in Africa for Airtel and as such an opportunity to garner enormous revenues which has a vast potential as there are only 36 out of every 100 mobile users. Though, some of the experts have pointed out that the deal is a loss making one if you calculate profit after tax levels. Also, the fact that Zain is losing out to rivals in places like Nigeria. “We are extremely happy with the price”; said Mohamed Al Kharafi, head of the Kharafi Group which owns a major stake in Zain
Zain said they are actively engaged in talks right now with Airtel and hope to reach a conclusion on the deal by 25th March.
Source Yahoo News
