●๋•●๋•●๋•దేశ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స ●๋•●๋•●๋•

Ending years of trying to aggressively expand its overseas footprint, Bharti Airtel finally closed the $10.7 billion (about Rs 48,000 crore) acquisition of Zain's Africa operations.

Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Group, is clearly upbeat and confident that Bharti's biggest acquisition is set to take the company into the next orbit. As they announced that it had completed the formalities of the acquisition of Zain, Bharti's famed trio expressed confidence that the next level of growth is round the corner.

“I think we have cracked the code in Nigeria. I cannot obviously detail it to you but Manoj Kohli and I believe we have cracked the code,” said Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Group.

There are three clear targets for Bharti as it steps into Africa. It is looking to achieve five billion dollars in revenue from Africa, two billion dollars in EBITDA from the continent even as it wants 100 million subscribers from the continent of hope.

Markets have been concerned that Bharti's balance sheet is too debt heavy as this acquisition has come at a time when the company is already looking at a huge cash payout in the recent spectrum auction. The bean counter himself allayed fears of India's largest telecom company being overleveraged.

This week some key people, including Manoj Kohli, will relocate to Kenya to run the new entity. The Airtel brand could be launched by October, which will give wheels to the first Indian global consumer brand.