Bharti Airtel, India’s leading mobile operator, has made a multi-billion dollar bid for control of Johannesburg-listed MTN, a powerful player in Africa and the Middle East, that would make it one of the biggest beasts of emerging markets telecoms.

Insiders told the Financial Times that the Indian operator tabled an indicative bid for 51 per cent of the equity of MTN at about R165 a share, which would value the South African company’s entire equity at around $37bn, for which it had secured $12bn of financing from Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered.