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Friday April 25, 08:48 AM Bharti may bid for South Africa's MTN - FT

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone firm, may bid for South African telecommunications group MTN in what would be its biggest foreign acquisition, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper quoted an unidentified person familiar with the deliberations as saying that Bharti's board members were in advanced discussions about its growth strategy, which had largely been organic to date.

The person said the board would decide whether to press ahead with a "transformational piece of M&A" and a bid for MTN was at the forefront of the ideas under consideration, although he said it was premature to say it would launch a tender offer.

The FT said Standard Chartered was advising Bharti and that Singapore Telecommunications, which owned 30.5 percent of Bharti at the end of 2007 and supported the plan, was being advised by Goldman Sachs.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti's founder and chairman, told the newspaper that Thursday's board meeting was "just about our quarterly results".

"Of course, we talk to people all the time and don't preclude anything. All I can tell you is how things stand today. That said, this is a competitive business environment and I do not want to be compromised by ruling things out for months."
India Bharti says MTN bid report untrue

25.04.2008 ,8:36 GMT
[-] Text [+] JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd and MTN Group denied on Friday a newspaper report that India's top mobile services company would bid for its South African-based counterpart.

"The Financial Times report is absolutely wrong," Bharti's joint managing director Akhil Gupta told CNBC television.

"But having said that we always maintain that we believe that maybe it's a good time for us now to look internationally for expansion. We will continue to do so and will continue to evaluate whatever comes to us, but the Financial Times report is not correct."

MTN, Africa's largest mobile phone operator, said in a statement it had received no specific proposal.

"MTN receives tentative approaches from time to time, which are always evaluated by the company. The board of MTN has not received any specific proposal and if and when there is anything specific to report, the market will be notified," it said.

The Financial Times report quoted an unidentified person familiar with the deliberations as saying that Bharti's board members were in advanced talks about its growth strategy, which had so far largely been organic.

The person said the board would decide whether to go ahead with a "transformational piece of M&A" and a bid for MTN was at the forefront of ideas being considered, although it was premature to say it would launch a tender offer.

Shares of MTN, with a market capitalisation of around $33 billion, rose as much as 6.7 percent on the report but later trimmed gains and were up 4 percent at 138.35 rand at 0922 GMT. The JSE blue-chip top-40 index was off 0.3 percent.

Bharti, India's fourth-most valuable firm at about $41 billion, rose 6.5 percent at 898.80 rupees at 0450 GMT, their highest level since February 7.

MTN has been the target of takeover speculation since at least 2004 when a newspaper reported that Norway's Telenor, could be in the running to buy MTN. The report was denied.

Last month, Britain's Vodafone Group denied a report it had been in talks with MTN about acquiring a stake in the South Africa's company's international operations.

"MTN is a quality asset. It's one of the better telecoms stories in Africa," Jan Mentjes, a portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management, said. "Whether this rumour about Bharti Airtel is true I will pay attention because I'm sure quite a few parties are looking at MTN."

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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