Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile operator, said it could “move pretty quickly” if the board of MTN, the South Africa-based telecoms group, puts itself up for sale on Monday.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel, told the Financial Times that he had “been approached by bankers in the last few months in a much more frenzied manner” but had not formally discussed any bid for MTN with his own board.