In a new twist to the Bharti - Zain deal Bahrain Telecommunications also known as BTEL also has shown interest in acquiring the Kuwaiti Zain's African's assets. This is possible only in case the deal with Bharti breaks for some reason, which for the moment does not seem the case to be.

They also made it clear that they were looking at other opportunities as well; one of them could be if Bharti decided to sell off the acquired stuff they are in line for buying them.

Chief executive Peter Kaliaropoulos, of BTEL also said that he did not currently expect any sort of breakup between them.

Bharti earlier this week had entered into exclusive talks till March 25. They have offered Zain 9 billion US dollars for the acquiring their assets. The chairman at its shareholders meeting confessed that he had looked to make an acquisition worth 2 billion dollars in Africa and India and had planned to raise the money trough a mixture of debt and equity. At the shareholders meeting the Chairman also said that the net profit is expected to decline marginally this time.