Vodafone to Bid $39 Billion for Africa's MTN, Sunday Times Says

Vodafone to Bid $39 Billion for Africa's MTN, Sunday Times Says

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Vodafone Group Plc may offer 20 billion pounds ($39 billion) to take over MTN Group Ltd., Africa's largest mobile-phone company, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

Arun Sarin, chief executive officer of the world's largest mobile-phone company, told his acquisition team, led by former UBS AG banker Warren Finegold, to seek ways to buy Johannesburg- based MTN, the U.K. newspaper said. MTN Financial Director Rob Nisbet said today by mobile phone he wasn't ``aware'' of a bid.

A message left today by Bloomberg News on the mobile phone of Bobby Leach, spokesman for Newbury, England-based Vodafone, wasn't immediately returned.

Vodafone wants to expand in emerging markets to compensate for slowing growth in Europe. The company said on Jan. 31 it planned to build up operations in Africa by increasing its stake in Vodacom Group Ltd., South Africa's largest wireless provider. In the past two years, Vodafone has bought stakes in mobile operators in India and Turkey to tap faster-growing markets.

MTN said May 5 it was in talks with India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. that may lead to the biggest takeover in African history. Reliance Communications Ltd. and China Mobile Communications Corp. may also be interested in MTN, UBS AG analysts Suresh Mahadevan and John Slettevold wrote in a report the next day.

Mobile-phone operators are being lured to the potential growth in the company's markets. MTN has 68 million customers in Africa, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria, with a possible combined market of 240 million consumers by 2012.

Vodafone declined 0.9 penny, or 0.6 percent, to 161.8 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, trimming the company's market value to 86 billion pounds. The stock has declined 14 percent since the start of the year.

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