According to the Sunday Times, Vodafone may offer $39 billion to buy MNT Group Ltd. which is the largest mobile phone company in Africa.
Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin told his acquisition team, led by former UBS AG banker Warren Finegold, to seek ways to buy Johannesburg- based MTN. MTN Financial Director Rob Nisbet said he wasn’t “aware” of a bid.
| MTN on March 25 denied a report in South Africa’s Business Times that it was in negotiations to sell a stake to Vodafone.
Buying MTN will help Vodafone to make up for slow growth in Europe by expanding in emerging markets such as Africa. The company said Jan. 31 it planned to boost holdings of Vodacom Group Ltd., South Africa’s largest wireless provider, even as talks to buy a stake from the parent failed. In the past two years, it has bought stakes in Indian and Turkish companies. MTN however said that it was in talks with Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India that may lead to Africa’s biggest takeover. Reliance Communications Ltd. and China Mobile Communications Corp. may also be interested, UBS AG analysts Suresh Mahadevan and John Slettevold wrote in a report. |
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