South African telecom giant MTN could look at a "less controversial" deal with Bharti Airtel instead of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications because of his feud with elder brother Mukesh, media reports in South Africa suggested.
Such speculations are surfacing in the South African and London media even after MTN and RCom extended their exclusivity agreement for negotiations from July 8 till July 21. "The original, less controversial merger with Bharti Airtel could be back on the cards," a report in South African daily The Times said, adding that MTN wanted a "clean deal".
"Media frenzy surrounding MTN's proposed merger with Reliance Communications is probably creating a useful smokescreen to allow it explore opportunities in other countries well away from the spotlight," another South African daily Business Day reported.
RCom and MTN had first announced exclusive talks on May 26 after the South African company's talks with the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel fell through.
The Times, in its report, said that MTN's board, which met last week, might "well conclude that the deal (with RCom) has become too complicated and decide that it does not want its shareholders to be held hostage to an unwieldy legal battle in another jurisdiction". The report quoted a Vunani Securities analyst as saying that MTN would want to take on a "clean" deal.
"MTN does not want to take on baggage. If this deal goes through, they will want another extension. Another possibility is that this extension is just a strategy to buy time to limit the damage already done," the analyst told the Times.
Noting that a withdrawal from the talks might not be "straightforward", the report quoted unnamed sources close to the development as saying that "Bharti is likely to be more flexible than Reliance (Communications)".
The Times report added that "MTN will definitely strike a deal
