In a strong indication towards a merger with the South African telecom major MTN, Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said that the discussions currently being held are aimed at combining the strengths of the two leading ’emerging markets’ players and accordingly veering towards possible structure to achieve this objective.
This is the first time since announcing that it is in exploratory nature talks with MTN that Bharti has officially commented on its discussions with MTN. The company emphatically denied that it has made any bid for MTN. “Bharti would like to clarify that it has not made any “bid”, nor is there any requirement to make a “bid”, as has been incorrectly speculated and reported,” the statement said.
It further said that, “Bharti would like to reiterate that these discussions are still exploratory in nature and may or may not lead to any transactions”.
The Bharti statement comes a day after Emirates Telecommunications Corp of UAE (Etisalat), which has operations in Pakistan among the 16 countries it is present in said that it is also interested in MTN because of the opportunities it offers.
“We are always looking for expansion in Africa,” Etisalat chairman Mohammed Omran had said. “We are evaluating MTN, among other companies. I see within three to four years that revenue from Africa will not be less than 25%,” he had added. The statement was seen by analysts as the beginning of the bidding war for acquiring controlling stakes in MTN, as it was for the first time that a chief executive of a leading, global telecom firm had on record indicated his company’s interest in MTN.
Earlier, China Mobile’s chief executive had said on record that it is interested in South African market but added that it has not bid for MTN.
