ARUN SARIN, the chief executive of Vodafone, will tell shareholders this week he will not be drawn into bidding for MTN after the African mobile-phone operator abandoned plans to merge with Bharti Airtel of India this weekend.
Sources say Bharti's domestic rival, Reliance Communications, controlled by the Ambani brothers, is the favourite to land MTN. Vodafone had considered a £20 billion bid for the company, which has 68m customers in 21 African and Middle Eastern markets, before publicly declaring two weeks ago that it would not proceed.
Instead, it is still keen to buy out its partner Telkom from their joint venture Vodacom in South Africa, a deal that crumbled late last year. MTN and Bharti fell out over the structure of a combined group.
Sarin will flag further emerging-markets opportunities when he presents full-year results on Tuesday. Analysts expect Vodafone to post underlying earnings of £13.1 billion on revenues of £35.4 billion, including £2 billion of sales from data such as internet access on the move.
Sales have been boosted by the strength against the pound of the euro, in which Vodafone earns half its money.
Sarin is keeping a keen eye on China's telecoms market, which is restructuring to create stronger competitors to China Mobile, in which Vodafone has a 3.3% stake. China Mobile, which is recruiting 7m new subscribers every month, will absorb China Tietong Telecommunications, a fixed-line operator. The Chinese government plans to issue three 3G licences once the reorganisation is complete, a good sign for telecoms-equipment makers.
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Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
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