Standard & Poor’s lowered Bharti Airtel’s credit rating in view of the large debts taken by the company to fund the $10.7 billion deal with Zain for acquiring the latter’s Africa operations.

"We lowered Bharti's rating to reflect our expectation that the company's leverage and cash-flow protection measures will deteriorate significantly, following its largely debt-funded acquisition of Zain Africa, based on an enterprise value of $10.7 billion," S&P said.

S&P lowered Bharti's long-term corporate credit rating to 'BB+' from 'BBB-' but said the outlook is stable.