Vodafone may enter MTN race

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Monday , May 12, 2008 at 0000 hrs The bidding war for South African telecom major MTN may have just started, with the largest telecom company by revenues, Vodafone, too eyeing MTN. According to foreign media reports, the company is examining a £20 billion ($39.02 billion) bid for MTN.

However, a Vodafone spokesperson told a foreign news agency in London that, “we have no intention of pursuing a bid for MTN.”

Vodafone is the second largest mobile operator with about 250 million subscribers worldwide and acquisition of MTN would add the latter’s 68 million users to its fold, taking it closer to China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile company by subscriber base—close to 400 million.

Earlier, China Mobile’s chief executive had said that it was interested in South African market but had not bid for MTN.

According to a report in Sunday Times, Vodafone’s chief executive Arun Sarin has instructed his in-house acquisition team, led by former UBS banker Warren Finegold, to examine options to buy MTN.

A deal would be Sarin’s largest acquisition as chief executive, greatly increasing Vodafone’s exposure to emerging markets, and would represent an alternative route across the booming continent of Africa, after the frustration last year of failing to take control of Vodacom, Vodafone’s existing investment in South Africa, the report said.