Bharti Airtel?s share price on Wednesday rose 0.31% to close at Rs 311.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), a day after the company signed the agreement to acquire Kuwait-based Zain Telecom?s African operations in 15 countries at an enterprise valuation of $10.7 billion. The investor community at large has largely viewed the deal, which gives Bharti a combined revenue of $13 billion and a subscriber base of 179 million, as a challenging task.

?The big challenge is streamlining operations across all these countries with limited resource availability,? said Kamlesh Bhatia, principal analyst at research firm Gartner. They also have to turn the company around in the fastest time possible. The deal would give Bharti 42 million subscribers in 15 African countries, which have a combined estimated annual revenue of $3.6 billion, but are currently making losses.

?The main challenge for Bharti lies in raising revenue and adding subscribers as Zain has been losing both in some of the countries,? said Amit Ahire, analyst with Ambit Capital.

Meanwhile, the government of a small central African nation, Gabon weighed in on Monday against the deal, saying Zain Gabon had not complied with regulations and that it reserved the right to take all necessary measures. Also the minority ownership of Zain’s operations in Nigeria, the biggest market in the deal, is also in dispute. However, Sunil Bharti Mittal in an interview to FE on Tuesday said that he would work with the government?s across the African portfolio to resolve whatever the issues. He said Bharti would also talk to the minority shareholders in Zain Nigeria.

Bharti is paying $9 billion in cash to Zain, what many regard as a full price, and after assumption of $1.7 billion of debt on the target firm’s books, the deal is valued at around 10 times Ebidta, more than Bharti’s own valuations.