Top Indian telecoms firm Bharti Airtel said on Sunday it had tied up the entire financing requirement of $8.3 billion for its planned acquisition of Kuwaiti firm Zain's African assets.

The financing was oversubscribed, with major international banks committing to underwrite the total amount, Bharti said in a statement.

The Indian firm and Zain are in exclusive talks until March 25, marking the third time Bharti has tried to get its hands on a meaningful African business after two failed bids for South Africa's MTN .

Bharti would pay a total $9 billion for acquiring Zain's assets in 15 African countries, and will also assume $1.7 billion of debt on the target firm's books. Of the $9 billion purchase price, $700 million would be paid to Zain one year after closing the deal, the companies have said.

For $7.5 billion of the financing, the lead advisor was Standard Chartered Bank , while Barclays acted as the joint lead advisor, Bharti said.

Other banks participating in the deal include top Indian lender State Bank of India (SBI) , ANZ, BNP , Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Credit Agricole CIB, DBS , HSBC , Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

In addition to the dollar financing, SBI has committed up to $1 billion equivalent rupee loans to Bharti which would also cover any associated transaction costs, the Indian telecoms firm said.

Bharti's board on Saturday met to discuss the $9 billion offer for Zain's African assets.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Hans Peters)

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