After Bharti Airtel hung up on South African telecommunications group MTN on Saturday, few industry observers were surprised that rival Reliance Communications was lurking in the background.

Reliance, India’s second-largest mobile phone operator, on Monday announced it would be holding six weeks of exclusive talks with MTN over a potential merger to create one of the leading telecoms groups in emerging markets. “This is a formidable arrangement putting these two together,” said one person close to the deal. “You have a very strong emerging markets connection.”