Tech & Biz

Reliance enters MTN takeover fray

by Sanjay Jha | May 26, 2008 at 03:19 am

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Within days of India's biggest private mobile company Bharti broke off talks with South African telecom czar MTN, another Indian mobile company Reliance has started negotiations with MTN. Bharti's tie up would have created one of the world's biggest mobile network.

India's Reliance Communications is now in talks with South African mobile phone firm MTN about a deal just hours after rival Bharti Airtel pulled out.
Bharti broke off talks with MTN after the two companies failed to agree on the structure of the combined entity.
A tie-up would have created the world's sixth-largest mobile phone operator with more than 130 million subscribers.
Reliance has now entered into exclusive negotiations with MTN but it warned that a deal was by no means certain.
'Exponential growth'
However, Reliance chairman Shri Anil Dhirubhai Ambani said he was keen to develop a partnership to "provide investors, customers and the people of both companies a unique and global platform for exponential growth".