Product details

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. With headquarters in New Delhi, India, the company ranks among the top four global mobile service providers in terms of subscribers. It provides: wireless and fixed line services; mobile commerce; high speed DSL broadband; IPTV; Direct to Home (DTH) services; and enterprise services; including national & international long distance services to carriers. Compared to its other Indian contemporaries, the company chose an aggressive growth strategy of expanding outside India and acquired the Kuwait based Zain Telecom’s African business in 2010 for USD10.7 billion, the second biggest acquisition by any Indian company. Bharti was to pay USD8.3 billion upfront and USD700 million after a year. It had also taken over approximately USD1.7 billion of Zain's debts as on December 31, 2009. The African business was aimed to widen Bharti's reach, hitherto restricted to Asia and Indian Ocean region. The case focuses on the financial performance of the company to critically analyze whether the growth strategy worked for Airtel or not.