Mittal's Africa call finally connecting

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and group CEO of Bharti Enterprises attends a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 29, 2010.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Persistence is paying off for Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Airtel. The billionaire founder of Bharti is finally close to realising his dreams of building a major presence in Africa with a deal to pay $9 billion for Kuwaiti group Zain's assets in 15 African countries.

The two companies said due diligence is complete and that final agreements will be signed soon.

Bharti's deal with Zain is Plan B for Mittal after two failed attempts to tie-up with South Africa's MTN Group, most recently through a complex $24 billion merger that failed late last year after several extensions.

"It's my job to move forward and not look back," Mittal told reporters in Geneva in October, soon after ending talks with MTN. "We will keep on looking at opportunities ... and will look at all the emerging markets."

Mittal did not spend time licking his wounds, announcing the Zain negotiations on Feb. 15.

The soft-spoken Mittal has come a long way from selling bicycle parts to creating India's top mobile firm, ranking 8th on Forbes list of Indian billionaires, with a net worth of $8.2 billion.

He has been aggressively hunting for emerging market buys as Bharti's home market becomes increasingly competitive. The Zain deal is a hedge against declining margins at home.

"He knows if he didn't do it this time, he would struggle for growth in India," said Bundeep Singh Rangar, chairman of cross-border M&A advisory IndusView Advisors.

NO MEAT BEFORE DEAL

Mittal, 52, who graduated from university in the northern state of Punjab, saw an opportunity in Indian telecoms when the sector was opened up for private participation in the mid-1990s.

At the time, Bharti was a rank outsider in a business that attracted many of India's mightiest corporate groups including the Tatas, the Birlas and the Ambani family's Reliance.

Expectations were low for a company armed with just one licence to operate a mobile network in Delhi and whose only connection with telecoms was making push-button telephones.

Mittal kept on buying stakes and licences to expand Bharti's coverage nationwide, building his New Delhi-based firm into India's leading mobile operator with nearly a quarter of the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

Along the way he brought high-profile partners into a diversified group of businesses with interests including retail and financial services.

Singapore Telecommunications, Southeast Asia's biggest phone firm, owns about 30 percent of Bharti Airtel. Other partners for his businesses include Wal-Mart, Axa and Del Monte Pacific.

Mittal is the second of three sons of a politician and is himself known to be politically well-connected. Like most Indians Mittal has strong family ties, and his brothers work with him at Bharti, although his top lieutenants are outsiders.

A yoga and golf enthusiast who sports close-cropped hair, Mittal foregoes meat before a big venture, and has said he followed a vegetarian diet up until Sept. 30 last year, the deadline for talks between MTN and Bharti.

(Editing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Hans Peters)