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News
• Okiro launches 2008 Police Games
• Ministerial slot: Plot against Mbadinuju unveiled
• Motorcycle operators foil kidnap of two pupils  
• I am poised to transform Adamawa –Gov Nyako
• Businessman petitions IG over shooting of his son
• Egbeleku deserted over murder by irate youths
• Poly expels 20 students over cultism
• Youths make case for micro-finance banks 
• Okada Riders Association boss abducted
• Commissioner tears community apart
• Prices up as donkeys turn house-helps  
• Ooni, Alaafin rivalry ends
• Lagos councils adjudged non-performers
• Kid bread seller kills cousin over proceeds  
• Uduaghan blasts hospital workers
• Ohakim descends on ‘Okada' operators
• Don't retire lecturers under 65, Court cautions Ibadan Polytechnic
• Forget the past, Saraki tells opposition
• Kogi LG election will hold as planned –Dep. Gov
• Nyako disowns debts inherited from Haruna
• UNN VC bags AASU 2007/08 Award
• MOSOP celebrates Shell's exit from Ogoniland
• Ohakim targets improved child health

Relating Stories

•Troubled oil industry: Military top brass
under scrutiny
• MTN stranded: As Reliance ends merger talks
• Intercontinental vs. Water-Parks: Winfunke denies duping Jimoh Ibrahim
• FG, TUC disagree over fuel subsidy
• Shareholders endorse Omatek
• ALSCON imports alumina
• Celtel network suffers collapse
• Stakeholders urge FG to expedite industrial growth
• Tourism institute generates N84m

MTN stranded: As Reliance ends merger talks

THE hope of the leading mobile telecommunications provider in Africa, MTN Group to expand its operations and enlarge its subscriber base hit the rock when its latest suitor Reliance Communications Limited India's second-largest mobile-phone operator ended discussions to combine their operations after threats by Reliance Industries Limited to block the transaction. National Daily learnt that owing to certain legal and regulatory issues, the parties are unable to conclude a transaction before the July 21 deadline for exclusive discussions.

The transaction, which would have created an operator with a user base more than double South Africa's population, failed over a dispute between Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani and his brother, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani. Reliance said it received an arbitration notice from Reliance Industries, which had threatened to block any sale in the carrier that didn't give it a chance to buy the shares.

This is the second time in three months that Johannesburg- based MTN has failed to strike a deal with an Indian wireless operator. Bharti Airtel Limited, India's biggest mobile-phone company, said May 24 it ended talks with MTN after failing to overcome differences over ownership and management. The transaction also fell through because both companies couldn't agree on valuations. The deal would have been South Africa's biggest and created a mobile-phone company with more than 116 million subscribers stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Himalayas.

In November, MTN broke off talks with Telkom South Africa Limited to buy assets from Africa's biggest fixed-line phone company, saying they were unable to reach an agreement. MTN's Chief Executive Officer Phutuma Nhleko has driven the company's expansion north from South Africa into 21 countries throughout the continent and the Middle East, covering a region with a combined population of more than 500 million people. The African operator aims to increase subscriber numbers by 36 percent to about 83.4 million his year in markets including Nigeria and Iran.
Mukesh Ambani, 51, and Anil Ambani, 49, already are locked in a legal battle over the pricing of gas. The brothers split the Reliance Group in 2006 in an agreement brokered by their mother, widow of founder Dhirubhai Ambani. Anil Ambani is the world's sixth-richest man, with a personal fortune of $42 billion, according to Forbes. Mukesh Ambani is ranked fifth by the magazine, with $43 billion.

Mukesh Ambani's claim to have a right to buy a stake in Reliance Communications is based on a Jan. 12, 2006, document that was signed only by officials of Reliance Industries, Reliance Communications said last month. Anil Ambani had rejected the agreement at that time, the mobile-phone company said.