Bharti to buy Loop Mobile in $113 million deal - reports

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's top cellular carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd will acquire Loop Mobile in a 7-billion-rupee deal that may be announced this week, Indian newspapers reported on Monday.

The deal will be on a slump sale basis, the paper said, quoting sources involved in the deal, and Bharti will get Loop's 3 million subscribers, about 400 telecom towers and optic fibre and electronic equipment on which Loop's network currently runs, the Economic Times said.

The deal will make Bharti the largest telecoms operator in the Mumbai circle with about 7 million subscribers, ahead of rival Vodafone's Indian unit.

A Bharti spokesman declined to comment. Loop did not have an immediate comment.

 

(Reporting by Prashant Mehra; Editing by Sunil Nair)