Vodafone also plans for stake in MTN

VODAFONE is examining a £20 billion bid for MTN, Africa’s largest mobile-phone operator.MTN has 68m customers in 21 countries across Africa and the Middle East. Most of its subscribers are in South Africa, Nigeria and Iran.
Bharti said last week that it was in “exploratory discussions” with MTN. It wants to buy a 51% stake in the business. Priced at about $19 billion (£9.7 billion), it would mark the largest overseas expansion ever by an Indian firm. However, the two sides are still some distance apart on price. In addition, some minority shareholders are said to believe a full takeover would present more value.
Vodafone had hoped to strike a deal with its South African joint-venture partner Telkom to lift its 50% stake in Vodacom to 85% for £3.5 billion by the end of last year. However, Telkom, which is part-owned by the South African government, halted talks in November after it could not agree a price for a parallel deal to sell some of its fixed-line assets to MTN.