Bharti MTN talks collapse again

In the end, the hurdles proved insurmountable. For the second time in as many years, Bharti Airtel and South Africa’s MTN failed to reach what would have been an historic $23-billion agreement to create the world’s third largest mobile firm with over 200 million subscribers, revenues of $20 billion and operations spanning 24 countries from the Cape of Good Hope to Bay of Bengal.

While Bharti shares were unaffected because news of the talks’ collapse came after trading hours, MTN shares at the time of going to press had lost 5% on the Johannesburg stock exchange and trading in its scrip had been halted at the company’s request. The South African rand lost 2% against the dollar.

While last year’s talks ended because of a surprise last-minute demand by MTN that Bharti becomes its subsidiary,

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com