Bharti board to meet to discuss Zain deal: Source

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Bharti board to meet to discuss Zain deal: Source

Bharti Airtel's board is meeting on Saturday to discuss the progress of talks to buy Kuwaiti telecom Zain's African assets in a deal worth USD 9 billion, a source with direct knowledge of the development said.

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The source said financing details were likely to be finalised in the next two days.

A Bharti spokesman declined to comment on the board meeting and the possible setting up of an escrow account.

Both Bharti and Zain have said USD 700 million of the purchase price would be paid a year after the completion of the deal, and the source said part of it would be put in the escrow account.

"The due diligence has been conducted quite speedily. So if something works out negatively, the money can be adjusted against that," the source said, referring to the money likely to be put in the escrow account.

"No major issues have emerged in the due diligence apart from Nigeria," he said.

A dispute between Zain Nigeria and South Africa-based minority shareholder Econet Wireless Holdings could cause problems for Bharti's third effort to get its hands on a sizeable business in Africa.

But sources have said a team of bankers from UBS, which is advising Zain, visited Nigeria with Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal last week, indicating the parties had worked around the problem.

Banking sources have told Reuters Basis Point that Bharti is aiming to raise up to USD 8.5 billion in offshore loans to fund the deal and had issued a term sheet to banks.