To close Zain deal by April-end: Sunil Mittal

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To close Zain deal by April-end: Sunil Mittal

On to Bharti's quest for Zain, Bharti Enterprises top boss Sunil Mittal says, clarity on how the Bharti-Zain deal is being funded will emerge as early as next week. In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Mittal said that he was confident of closing the deal in April itself.

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Bharti Enterprises top boss Sunil Mittal says, clarity on how the Bharti-Zain deal is being funded will emerge as early as next week. In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Mittal said that he was confident of closing the deal in April itself.

Here is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: CRISIL has just put out a report and it has put Bharti Airtel on the wait and watch and that is on account of see on the debt that you are going to take on 0.15 times as of December 31st, they are hoping it will go to about 1 times on account of this acquisition, your comments on this?

A: I haven't seen the report but I won't be surprised anybody who is going to assess he is going to see a very large potential debt coming into the company and until we go out and explain our whole plan and how we funding and what are are the funding plans, I think this is pretty natural.

Q: So what is the debt that you are comfortable with because you have been trying to ally investor apprehension on how this deal is going to be funded and structured the enterprise value for about USD 10.7 billion, Zain says its net cash will be USD 5 billion on account of this deal, your outgo will be about USD 9 billion in cash, so what is the kind of debt that you are comfortable with?

A: We are currently one of the only telecom companies in India perhaps around the globe which has no debt and on a net-net basis we are positive as you know and given our EBITDA levels which you very well know there is enough potential to raise debt so debt is coming form all around everyone is very keen to fund it, how much terms, give it a few more things

Q: There is a figure doing the rounds that it could be between 5-6 billion would that be in the ballpark of what you are looking at?

A: I won't be able to comment because I know the team is working on the treasury team and they will finally come with a figure that is necessary.

Q: What analysts seem to be saying at this point in time and you talked about it yourself about your balance sheet do you need to look at the equity funding as far as this deal is concerned at this point in time or are you comfortable with taking on just debt fund this acquisition? So what is the preferred option?

A: All we know is that this money is available, so how do we want to pick it up we have many ways to do this and that is precisely what is being discussed at the moment and I would say by the end of next week we will have a clear picture.