MTN

African mobile operator MTN Group has agreed to combine its international carrier services unit with Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), reports Telecompaper.

The Financial Times reports that India's Bharti Airtel yesterday moved a step closer to obtaining Indian regulatory clearance for its proposed equity alliance with South Africa's MTN in a deal that would be one of the largest mergers and acquisitions this year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN Group are on track to meet a July 31 deadline to sign a merger deal.

India's Bharti and South Africa's MTN are expected to extend their merger talks by as much as four weeks due to the complexity of the deal, according to sources at Dow Jones Newswires.

In an interview with the Financial Times (FT) today, Bharti Airtel's chairman and founder, Sunil Bharti Mittal, says Bharti and MTN may remain separate entities for some time even if their current merger talks come to fruition.

India's Bharti and South Africa's MTN today confirmed they are to extend their merger talks by another month, with an exclusivity period now ending 31 August

Reuters reports that shares in Indian operator Bharti Airtel fell as much as 4.8 percent today - to their lowest in over three months - following worries that the company will increase by 5-10 percent its offer to buy a stake in South Africa's MTN.