India SBI offers Bharti $1 bln loan for MTN-sources

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, July 3 (Reuters) - State Bank of India (SBI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) has offered a loan of up to $1 billion to Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) to partly fund the Indian telecoms firm's planned stake buy in South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research), two sources said.

State Bank, India's top lender, has offered the loan for between 3 and 5 years, they said. The two declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

"Bharti is our customer. We looked at the transaction and thought we could be part of it too," one source, who has direct knowledge of the transaction, said.

Government-run State Bank, which along with its associates controls a quarter of Indian bank loans and deposits, will join a clutch of foreign lenders interested in funding the deal that aims to create the world's third-biggest wireless group with more than 200 million subscribers and combined revenue of $20 billion.

"We have no further comment to offer at the moment," said a spokesman for Bharti, referring to its statement in May announcing the leading Indian mobile operator had revived exclusive talks with MTN for a merger.

State Bank officials declined comment. (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram & Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)