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India's Bharti Airtel group is in negotiations to acquire the African telecom operations of Zain, six months after the failure of its merger talks with MTN.



Zain would give Bharti access to an estimated 42 million customers in15 African countries, in many of the same markets where the MTN Group operates.



MTN is currently No. 1 in most of its markets, where Zain is No. 2 or 3. Globally, Bharti is the 10th largest mobile phone company while Zain is 20th. A merger would create the world’s 9th largest telcom operator, by customer subscriptions.



Negotiations between Zain and Bharti are set to continue until 25 March, and the deal is subject to due diligence and regulatory approval.



Bharti, India’s largest mobile telephony firm by subscribers as well as revenue, has been looking at the African markets for some time, following other phone companies who are seeking growth in emerging markets. Vodafone is acquiring businesses in India, Turkey and Qatar, while France's Vivendi recently topped Telefonica's bid for GVT in Brazil.