As I had previously predicted and conjectured in one of the blogs, the Bharti-MTN deal collapsed. This does not come as a surprise at all. In fact if you ask me, this was something that was imminent. The Indian telecom czar had got his hopes high and had exercised all his strength to make the deal a success. Mr. Mittal’s meeting the prime minister thrice that week, prior to the deal was certainly not over anything modest. But as it is often said, not all is under one’s control and as destiny would have it the deal failed. The dilly dallying by MTN portended the doom and the shelving was a signal from the South African entities to say “Naah we are not interested anymore”. Whatever it involved, it sure is a lost growth opportunity at least for some time for the telecom major. Mr. Mittal had tried all that was possible to establish a transnational telecom company and to entrench AIRTEL as a world class company straddling different continents. Leading newspapers seemed to console Mr. Mittal with quotes from head honchos of different industries.
However there are a few things that Mr. Mittal can make best use of out of the failed deal. In the first place Airtel can focus all its energy on the expansion onto 3G space in India without stretching its finances. Airtel is economically and functionally empowered for bigger battles and can even look out for other deals that are not as demanding. Bharti is free to explore the nook and crannies that were unexplored till date, it can certainly ensconce its position in India by meeting domestic demands. As we say, every cloud has a silver lining; this failed deal has quite a few. Unlike other sympathizers, we won’t sing sweet and consoling rhymes for Mr. Mittal but would rather expect Mr. Mittal to marshal his formidable clout and forge ahead taking india’s telecom sector to new heights in a new direction.
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