Bharti and MTN: Ready for a $23 billion deal?

Posted May 26th 2009 8:00AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: India, China Mobile Limited (CHL)

As global markets improve, we are now seeing renewed interested in M&A. Interestingly enough, it looks like a $23 billion deal is brewing between cell phone operators Bharti Airtel Ltd. -- the largest in India -- and South Africa-based MTN Group Ltd., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Actually, Bharti-MTN already tried to put a deal together -- about a year ago. But things fell apart based on factors like valuation and control.

Now the situation is different. If anything, the opportunities in developing markets continue to look attractive -- especially in areas like India and Africa. In fact, a Bharti-MTN combination would result in 200 million subscribers and $20 billion in revenues. This would make the company third in the cell market, behind China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD).

Oh, and there will be significant cost savings.

All in all, this looks like a smart deal, huh? Perhaps. However, cross-border deals are extremely difficult to pull off. If anything, there's likely to be much maneuvering on control issues again -- and government regulators could also impose significant barriers to getting the deal done.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses.

Tags: Bharti, Cell Phones, CellPhones, inthenews, MTN