Reliance eyes private equity help

Singapore – Anil Ambani, the billionaire chairperson of India’s Reliance Communications, may link up with private equity groups in a bid to gain a powerful foothold in sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator MTN, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.

Quoting people familiar with the situation, the FT said private equity groups had expressed interest in supporting Ambani’s plan to swap all or most of his majority stake in Reliance, India’s No.2 mobile operator, for up to 34.9% of MTN.

“These are people who are all interested in telecoms and emerging markets, therefore this deal is an obvious place for them to invest,” the paper quoted a person familiar with the potential tie-up as saying.

A combination of MTN, valued at $35.6bn at Tuesday’s close, and Reliance, valued at $26.9bn, would create a top 10 global industry company to rival Japan’s NTT DoCoMo.

MTN and Reliance said on May 26 they were in exclusive talks for a possible combination, just days after India’s top mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel broke off talks with MTN after failing to agree on how to structure a deal.

MTN and Reliance began due diligence on each other on Monday, the FT said.

It quoted the person familiar with the deal as saying it was still not clear whether Ambani would form a partnership with one of the private equity firms or what role they might play.

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Reliance eyes private equity help

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