By Devidutta Tripathy
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Bharti Airtel Ltd on Tuesday said its talks for South African mobile operator MTN were still "exploratory" and there was no requirement to make a bid.
Bharti, valued at about $37 billion, is the leading mobile phone operator in India, the second-largest market for wireless services in the world after China. A deal with MTN would produce the world's sixth-largest wireless firm with over 130 million subscribers in more than 20 countries.
"The discussions being held are aimed at combining the strengths of the two leading 'emerging markets' players and accordingly veering towards possible structures to achieve this objective," the company said in a statement.
Harit Shah, telecoms analyst at Mumbai-based Angel Broking, said: "That's a tough call... what they mean by the statement."
"I am not sensing a merger. If Mittal has to take control, he has to bid and come out with an open offer as per South African rules," he said, referring to Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal.
The Asian Wall Street Journal, quoting an unidentified source, said on Monday that Bharti was considering raising its offer to around 175 South African rand a share for control of MTN. It said an official bid could come this week.
Bharti, in which Singapore Telecommunications Ltd owns 30.5 percent, said it had not made any bid and the reports were "incorrectly speculated."
MTN was not immediately available for comment.
The UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) said on Monday it was also evaluating a possible bid for MTN.
China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile carrier, has said it is interested in the South Africa market, but has not bid for MTN.
Britain's Vodafone Group said on Sunday it has no intention of pursuing a bid for MTN, responding to media reports that it was considering buying part or all of MTN.
Ahead of the statement, shares in Bharti closed 2 percent lower at 821.25 rupees, while MTN was down 1.1 pct at 157.33 rand by 1335 GMT.
Bharti's shares have fallen 8.1 percent since the MTN talks were announced last week, and together with a slide in the rupee against the dollar, has sliced about $3.3 billion off the firm's market value.
MTN's market value has risen to $38.8 billion, after an 8.8 percent increase in its share prices since May 2, the trading day before the company said it was in talks with Bharti.
