State-run Indian operators MTNL and BSNL are reportedly looking to join a consortium with Indian firm Vavasi and a Malaysian investor as they seek to bid for Kuwait’s Zain Group and a stake in Zambian telco Zamtel. “We are going with Bharat Sanchar,” MTNL’s chairman R.S.P Sinha confirmed yesterday, reports Reuters, adding as India’s two state-run firms there were a number of requirements to be met as part of the bid process. The Zain deal is a 46 percent stake being sold by a group including Kuwaiti family congolomerate Kharafi Group. MTNL’s Sinha said his company had also expressed interest in buying a stake in fixed-line operator Zamtel, which the Zambian government plans to sell up to 75 percent of as part of a privatisation drive.

Reuters notes that Indian firms are increasingly looking at telecom assets in Africa, which has some of the least penetrated markets in the world. India’s Reliance Communications and Essar Group already own telecom assets in Africa, while long-running tie-up talks between India’s Bharti Airtel and South Africa’s MTN broke down for the second time last week. Meanwhile Reuters notes that MTNL has recently been disqualified from bidding for a 75 percent stake in Nigerian state-run telco Nitel because of its low equity base.