Bharti stocks surge, as MTN haunts RCom

MUMBAI: Bucking the weak trend, Bharti Airtel stock surged on Monday, while that of Anil Ambani group company RCom plunged as it entered into negotiations to acquire South African telecom entity MTN.
    
Shares of Bharti Airtel, which had pulled out of talks with MTN accusing the South African company of deviating from the agreed terms, rose by Rs 26.35 to Rs 863.15, while the RCom scrip lost Rs 29.10 to close at Rs 543.20.
    
After Bharti pulled out of talks, the shares of MTN at the Johannesburg stock exchange fell about 6 per cent to 147.60 rand.
    
RCom informed the stock exchange that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with MTN to discuss potential merging of two businesses.
    
The company has not spelt out the structure of the new entity and whether RCom would buyout MTN or vice-versa.
    
MTN, based in Johannesburg, and Mumbai-based Reliance are in exclusive talks for as long as 45 days to combine their businesses, but there is no certainty on the completion or the timing of any agreement.
    
Any agreement will depend on whether Reliance ADA Group Chairman Anil Ambani and MTN Chief Executive Phutuma Nhleko agree on control of an operator with a combined market value of more than 65 billion dollar stretching from the Cape of
Good Hope to the Himalayas. Bharti ended talks with MTN after failing to overcome differences over ownership and management.
    
Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex tumbled to a six-week low level in the last three trading sessions.