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New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile operator, may seek a merger or share swap with MTN Group to try to avoid a bidding war for the South African phone firm, analysts and media reports say.
The reports helped push up Bharti shares yesterday after the stock had fallen sharply last week on investor concerns over funding a deal that could top $20 billion and the risk of a bidding war.
A successful deal would be India's biggest foreign acquisition and create the world's sixth-largest mobile operator, with more than 130 million subscribers in more than 20 countries.
"What I feel is they want to cool off the situation after some international players said they are also interested in MTN," said R.K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Asset Management.
etisalat said it was evaluating a possible bid for MTN, and China Mobile has said it is interested in the South Africa market, but has not bid.
The Financial Times reported that Bharti had made an indicative bid of 165 rand per share for 51 per cent of MTN, valuing it at about $37 billion.
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