DealZone

Reliance Communications is one of the bidders for Zain’s African operations, two banking sources with knowledge of the situation have told us. Talks over the deal — reported to be worth $10 billion — are preliminary. 

There is a queue of banks for the other big telecoms deal in the works, willing to fund Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of a stake in South Africa’s MTN, says the Economic Times. The two are in exclusive merger talks till Aug. 31.

For an overview of other stories in the papers, click here.

The rumours just won’t go away.

Rumour number one: the Kuwaiti-backed Zain telecommunications group has effectively put its African operations up for sale with a reported price tag of US$12 billion.

Rumour number two: Zain is in talks with France’s Vivendi about doing a deal.

Zain has even posted on its website some of those news reports stating that its African business is under the hammer, effectively advertising a sale.

“I think we will know [about it] very quickly,” one source close to the parties said.