Pittsburgh: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has strongly backed Bharti Group's efforts to acquire stakes in the South African telecom giant MTN. Taking the issue with President Jacob Zuma in Pittsburg the Prime Minister said that the officials of the two countries would discuss the issue.
"As far as MTN issue is concerned, I mentioned it to (President) Zuma. I sincerely hope that this deal would go through and there will be no discrimination against it, we can have more talks over this with the government of South Africa," said Singh in Pittsburg after the conclusion of the G20 Summit.
Bharti and MTN are looking at $23 billion deal to create the world's third largest mobile firm with over 200 million subscribers.
The deal is likely to see $13 billion transaction in cash and $10 billion in shares.
According to the initial agreement, MTN and its shareholders would acquire 36 per cent stake in Bharti and the Indian company would acquire 49 per cent stake in MTN.
Network18 has access to the final contours of the mega merger that could create the world's third largest mobile company.
Sources say that the deal structure is likely to be based on enterprise value or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization valuations.
This model, also referred to as enterprise or EBITDA multiple, is often used in trans-national deals and takes into account the companies' debt rather than market capitalisation.
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