Bharati Drops Talks with MTN

Bharti says MTN changed the proposed merger structure after the in-principle agreement. Under the MTN proposal Bharti Airtel would become MTN subsidiary. Majority shares held by Bharti family and Singtel were to be exchanged for controlling stake in MTN.

After almost a month of hard negotiations, the Indian telecom major on Saturday said it had unsuccessfully ended talks for a possible merger with South African company MTN due to disagreement over the holding structure.

Bharti said the structure proposed by MTN would not capture the synergies of the two companies and was a convoluted way of getting an indirect control of the combined entity, compromising the interest of the minority shareholders of Airtel.