After four months of arduous negotiations, the disappointment at MTN’s headquarters was palpable after it emerged on Wednesday that the South African telecoms company had for the third time in 18 months failed in its bid to merge with Bharti Airtel, its larger Indian rival.

But the markets welcomed the news on Thursday, sending MTN’s share price up nearly 6 per cent. This suggests that even had the two groups been able to square the apparently contradictory political and regulatory requirements of India and South Africa, MTN would still have faced difficulty in trying to sell the deal to its investors.