THE Zain Group has finally sold off its operations in Africa, with the exception of Sudan and Morocco, to Bharti Airtel of India.

This means that Zain Nigeria, the third largest GSM operator in the country, is now in the hands of another owner, marking the sixth time the telecommunications company has changed hands.

The development followed a confirmation by the group that its board of directors, in Kuwait, on Thursday, approved the offer from Indian operator, Bharti Airtel, to acquire its African assets, other than those in Morocco and Sudan.

The Zain board said due diligence had been completed and parties were finalising agreements which were expected to be signed soon.

Bharti will pay $9 billion to acquire Zain's assets spread across 15 African countries.

According to Telecompaper, a Middle East-based news medium, “Bharti will also adopt $1.7 billion of Zain's debt.”

Bharti Airtel has operations in India and Sri Lanka and had over 118 million customers as of November 2009, including 116.01 million mobile customers.

Bharti had valued Zain Africa at $10.7 billion, but after deducting the company's net debt of $1.7 billion, it said its total payout would be $9 billion.