Bharti Interested in South African MTN - by rohit_939
For the last couple of years, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal has been on the prowl for a big-ticket overseas acquisition but it has eluded him so far.
A few months ago, however, the mood changed and there was excitement in the top echelons of the company as it identified two possible takeover targets: America’s Sprint Nextel and South Africa’s MTN. By last month, Sprint was out of the picture and Bharti had zeroed in on the South African operator.
And so, even while Mr Mittal denied any interest in MTN, there is a speculation in the media that a special meeting attended by the company’s directors was held on April 25, the day the company announced its results, where the MTN acquisition was discussed in detail.
MTN provides Mr Mittal with the platform to dial the world. If Bharti is successful in bagging a controlling stake in Africa’s largest telco, this could lead to the emergence of a global giant with 130 million subscribers whose presence spans the Indian subcontinent to the Arabian Peninsula and the whole of the African continent.
A Bharti-MTN combine, if it materialises, will become the sixth largest telco in the world in terms of subscriber base after China Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica, China Unicom and America Movil.