A Bharti Airtel official on Thursday said there were no new developments in its talks with South African telecoms operator MTN Group that could create the world’s sixth-largest mobile operator.
Bharti said on May 5 it was in exploratory talks with MTN, and on May 13 said it had not made any bid for the South African firm. Bharti is the leading cellphone operator in India, the second-biggest wireless market after China.
”There is no new development,” Syed Safawi, an executive director of Bharti, told reporters at news conference when asked on the progress of the talks.
In response to a question whether South African law would pose a problem, Safawi said: ”We have not reached such stage of dialogue,” and indicated the same answer applied when asked about India’s foreign investment laws.
Media and analysts estimate Bharti may value MTN as high a $50-billion, and say it could either buy a controlling stake or engineer a merger with the South African firm. – Reuters