Is Vodafone about to bid for South Africa’s MTN?

There are obvious reasons why South Africa’s second largest mobile phone operator would welcome interest from the UK company. Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile operator, has tabled a $19bn indicative bid for 51 per cent of MTN, which may be hoping to encourage a bidding war. Its management owns about a 10th of the company – shares in which have risen more than 50 per cent in the last year – giving it a $37bn market capitalisation. A more generous offer than Bharti’s might legitimately be expected from global operators such as Vodafone. Bharti’s market capitalisation only just trumps MTN’s and it would struggle to buy all of MTN’s equity for cash.