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India’s Bharti Airtel, South Africa’s MTN do not want quick dual listing

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:September 28, 2009

India’s Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) and South African MTN Group (MTNJ.J) are not looking at a dual-listed structure immediately if their merger goes ahead, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in an interview with a television channel.

Mukherjee had earlier said the Indian government welcomed a tie-up between Bharti Airtel and MTN, but there were legal issues that needed to be looked at. He had also said a dual listing of the firms would require the rupee to be made fully convertible, which needed to be examined.

Whereas Officials from South Africa’s Treasury and central bank plan to brief the country’s finance minister sometime Monday on the proposed tie-up between Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) and MTN Group (MTN.JO), a spokeswoman at the South African National Treasury said.

South Africa’s government is eager to retain MTN’s national character and has approached Indian authorities to consider a dual-listed structure, which is not allowed under existing Indian laws.

MTN and Bharti in May said they were discussing a deal that could see the Indian operator buy a 49% stake in MTN, and MTN and its shareholders buy 36% of Bharti.

The transaction between Bharti and MTN is aimed at creating a mobile-phone carrier with annual sales of $20 billion and 200 million wireless subscribers from Johannesburg to Mumbai.

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