COMPANIES 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.”
