Bharti Airtel has approached State Bank of India (SBI) for funding its recent deal to buy stake in telecom major Zain.

Talking about the issue, SBI Chairman told reporters that the telecom company had approached the bank to partner a deal with Zain. He, however, did not give any further details.

Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays are already acting as the official advisers of Bharti.

As of now, Bharti Airtel is trying to raise loans through a mixture of Indian rupee and dollar to finance its deal. Most of the funding is going to be through offshore loans, which is expected to be to the tune of $5 billion.

People close to the matter have already said that Bharti will be making some final decision on the funding aspect by Friday this week.

The exclusive talks between the two companies will go on till March 25.

This is not the first time that Bharti has approached SBI for funding. During its last acquisition attempt, where South Africa's MTN was the other party, it had gone ahead with its talk with SBI for funding. The money involved then was $2 billion.