**Tie-up talks between mobile phone companies Bharti Airtel of India and South Africa’s MTN have been called off at the last minute.**On the day of the latest deadline for an agreement, Bharti announced that it had “disengaged” from the talks.
The Indian company blamed the South African government for being unwilling to allow the deal to go ahead.
A merger would have created a firm with more than 200 million customers across India, Africa and the Middle East.
Bharti said it would have been the third biggest telecoms company in the world.
Dual listing
Bharti and MTN revived their talks in May, a year after they had broken down over the issue of who would control the merged group.
The deadline for an agreement has been extended twice and was due to expire on Wednesday.
This time, South African authorities approached Indian regulators to propose the idea of a dual listing so that MTN could retain its African identity, but Indian law does not currently allow such a structure.
Bharti said it hoped that the South African government would review its position and allow talks to begin again in the future.
The South African rand declined against the US dollar following the announcement.
But analysts were positive about the effect that the deal’s collapse would have on Bharti’s share price.
“This will turn out to have a positive effect on Bharti’s stock in the short term,” said Alex Matthews at Geojit-BNP Paribas Financial Services in Mumbai.
“And investors were waiting for so long on some clarity about the deal. At least now the uncertainty is over.”