And so it begins. Bharti Airtel, having announced that it had inked a legally binding agreement to acquire Zain Africa, will now have to go from regulator to regulator for approvals for providing telecom services to 42 million of Zain's subscribers in 15 countries. The deal makes Airtel the worlds fifth largest wireless company with 179 million subscribers, a majority of them still in India's increasingly competitive market. Manoj Kohli, who heads Bharti's international operations, will lead the company's African safari. This is Bharti's second acquisition this year (the first was another struggling operator - Warid in Bangladesh), and it gives them mobile operations in 15 countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Zain's operations in Sudan and Morocco are not a part of this deal. What the company is perhaps eying, is the opportunity in increasing the mobile penetration that currently is at approximately 32%, as well as the minutes of use. The company will have its hands full, and given the scale of the acquisition and the debt that the company has raised, this is likely to be its last acquisition for quite a while. Zain Africa has an enterprise value of $10.7 billion, and with 42 million customers, that's a value of $254.76 per customer. Airtel's CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal told the Economic Times that Zain has a topline of $4 billion, and EBITDA of $1.2 billion. Taking on an estimated…
