In May, last year, Bharti Airtel,
India's largest telecom company in
terms of subscribers, came almost close to bagging South Africa's
largest telecom provider MTN—but the deal fell through. Had the Bharti-MTN
deal materialized, it would have created the fifth largest mobile operator in
the world, with a strong presence in Africa, India and West Asia. It would have
also given Bharti a considerable foothold in the African telecom market, which
is chiefly dominated by local operators and European majors such as
Vodafone Group of UK and France Telecom. However, since the stalling of the deal,
market conditions have deteriorated dramatically, with world economies
entering into deep recession and markets across the globe plunging
precipitously. And no wonder, the market
capitalization of MTN has also declined by almost 30% since then.
Though, it was an audacious effort by Airtel to grab MTN, the top brass
of Bharti Airtel must be glad now that the talks with MTN broke down then.
Interestingly, though the global slowdown has whacked MTN badly, it could
not stain Airtel. On the contrary, Bharti Airtel, adjudged the `Best Carrier
India' at The Telecom Asia Award 2008, has been registering healthy profits and
is expanding its subscriber base rapidly, without showing any signs of
sluggishness. In fact, the company is surging past in terms of user base even in
times of slowdown. With more than 90 million subscribers under its belt, it has
widened the gap with its nearest rival, RCOM of Anil Ambani, from 10-12
million to over 25 million. Its Adjusted Gross Revenues (AGRs) from
wireless operations have outshone that of RCOM and Vodafone Essar
(VEL) taken together. |
