Bharti says MTN merger talks off

NEW DELHI (AFP) — Merger talks between India's biggest mobile phone services firm, Bharti Airtel, and South Africa's flagship MTN Group have been called off, the Indian company said in a statement on Saturday.

"Bharti has decided to disengage from the ongoing talks and has conveyed the same to MTN," the statement said.

Bharti, led by billionaire founder-chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, said the talks collapsed over a new ownership structure proposed by Johannesburg-based MTN that would have involved "Bharti Airtel becoming a subsidiary of MTN."

"Bharti's vision of transforming itself from a home grown Indian company to a true Indian multinational telecom giant, symbolising the pride of India, would have been severely compromised and this was completely unacceptable to Bharti," the Delhi-based company said. ...