Bharti Airtel's $9bn acquisition of Kuwait-based Zain's African assets may receive financial backing from Singapore Telecoms (SingTel), Reuters has reported. Bharti and Zain are in exclusive talks until March 25 for the Kuwaiti firm's operations in 15 African countries and have agreed on an enterprise value of $10.7bn for the assets, including $1.7bn of debt on Zain Africa books.