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Bharti Mulls Bid for MTN
(28 Apr 2008, BWCS Staff)Indian operator Bharti Airtel is said to be the latest mobile player considering a takeover bid for South Africa-based mobile company MTN. According to reports in the Financial Times, Standard Chartered Bank is acting as an advisor to Bharti on a possible deal. The paper also said that Singtel, which owns a 35% stake in Bharti Airtel, is in favour of a bid for MTN. Meanwhile, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Indian company's founder and chairman, denied that a recent board meeting had studied a proposal for a formal approach. A decision to proceed with a formal offer had not been taken and might never be, he said. Despite this, it is known that Bharti Airtel is keen to buy to grow and MTN is said to be firmly in their sights.
In November last year, the South African company reported a 12% jump in its customer base to reach 54.16 million, for the three months to the end of September 2007. The rise of nearly 6 million subscribers came mainly from markets outside its home base of South Africa. Domestically, its customer base edged ahead from 13.4 million to 13.88 million in the three months from June 2007.
The company's largest market is still Nigeria where its customer base grew by 7% during the quarter to reach to 14.99 million. The largest increases in its African subscriber numbers came in Ghana and Cameroon where its customer bases soared by 14% and 15% respectively during the three month period. Meanwhile, in Iran it managed to increase its customer numbers to 3.72 million, 88% up on the figure there three months ago.
It was also reported last year that China Mobile was planning to take a stake in MTN. The report, which gave few details of the proposed deal, cited the usual "company sources" as its informants. However, the mobile company itself issued a statement denying that it was on the verge of making any deal in South Africa.
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