New Delhi, March 24: Kuwait-based Zain Telecom today accepted a $10.7-billion (Rs 49,700 crore) offer from Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel for the bulk of its African assets.

Last week, the Bharti board had approved the acquisition at an enterprise value of $10.7 billion, which includes $1.7 billion of Zain’s debt that Bharti will have to pay and a $9-billion cash payment.

The deal paves the way for one of the largest cross-border telecom buys that will give Bharti access to 15 African countries.

With due diligence over, sources said, the stage is set for the signing of a formal deal in the next few days.

Exclusive talks between Bharti and Zain on the deal will end tomorrow.

Spokespersons for both Airtel and Zain did not comment.

Manoj Kohli, recently elevated to head Bharti’s international division, led the talks on behalf of the Indian company.

Earlier, Mittal in the last two years had bid twice for MTN but was thwarted by the South African government, which cited regulatory concerns.

The acquisition, which does not cover Zain’s operations in Morocco and Sudan, also puts Bharti in direct competition with MTN.

The Bharti-Zain combine will have revenues of some $13 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of around $5 billion.

The acquisition will also see India’s largest telecom firm by both customers and revenues go past China’s Unicom, Sweden’s TeliaSonera and Germany’s T-Mobile to become the world’s seventh-largest mobile phone company by subscribers as the combined Bharti-Zain entity will have about 170 million customers globally.

Africa has nearly 42 million mobile phone users and a teledensity of less than 50 per cent, offering a large room for growth for a company that is battling a fierce tariff war on its home turf.

The purchase will also be the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company since Tata Steel paid $12.9 billion for Corus in 2007.

“Even if the deal seems overvalued, Africa is where the next phase of growth lies and it (the deal) will help Bharti to become a big global player,” said Romal Shetty, telecom analyst with KPMG.

Being a pioneer of the low-cost, outsourced model of operations, Bharti can replicate it in Africa, where market conditions are similar, Shetty said.

On Sunday, Bharti said it had finalised $8.5 billion for its acquisition of Zain’s African assets.

Bharti had said that a consortium of banks led by Standard Chartered and Barclays would lend it $7.5 billion, and the State Bank of India (SBI) another $1 billion in a rupee loan.

The other lenders are Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Group Holdings, HSBC Holdings, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Global investment house KSCC is acting as a regional financial adviser on the deal.

“The deal will surely dilute Bharti’s EPS in the short-term, but after a couple of years, I expect the financial benefits to start flowing in,” said Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president, Karvy Stock Broking.