 Sunil Bharti Mittal |
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Despite denials by MTN that it had been approached by Barthi, the UK's Financial Times said in two reports, published last Tuesday and on Saturday, that one option would be to acquire 51% of MTN and still retain its JSE listing.
Another structure involved buying all of MTN in a cash-and-share sweetener for shareholders, with Bharti establishing a secondary JSE listing.
"Both options envisaged an integrated management structure and dual headquarters in India and SA," the Financial Times said, quoting "people close to the situation".
MTN, the subject of previous speculation about its future , is adamant it has not received "any specific" proposal, saying it would inform the market if and when a bid was made.
Bharti chairman and MD Sunil Bharti Mittal spoke of being approached by bankers "in a much more frenzied manner", but said he had not yet formally discussed any bid for MTN with his board.
Mittal, however, said that Bharti would have no difficulty in raising funds to finance the transaction.
"Money's not an issue. Our net debt is just $70m. The whole world wants to fund us," he said.
MTN, with more than 68-million customers in Africa and the Middle East, has a market capitalisation of more than $35bn, while Bharti is valued at more than $44bn.
Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank had been advising MTN and Standard Bank was advising Bharti.
Singtel of Singapore, which has a 30,5% stake in Bharti, had retained Goldman Sachs as an adviser.
source: allafrica.com/stories/200805050850.html
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