Big Jump in MTN Users

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A big jump in the number of cellphone subscribers in Iran last quarter was welcome news for MTNMTN, but potentially troublesome for US banks eying a role in its planned 20 billion-plus merger.

When MTNMTN and India's Bharti Airtel first discussed a tie-up more than a year ago, MTNMTN had about 6 million users in Iran, Business Day wrote.

Its business there, and in Sudan and Syria, has since grown a fact that has not escaped US banks milling around the deal. Nobody in Washington is saying publicly that US banks should be barred from playing a role in the merger of the two emerging market telecom companies. Not yet, anyway.

But MTNMTN's annual report says 13 percent of its revenue last year came from Iran, Sudan and Syria.

The number of MTNMTN's subscribers in Iran alone rose 14 percent to 18.2 million last quarter. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is advising MTNMTN on the deal, with Deutsche Bank.

Sources involved in the offer say Goldman Sachs is advising Bharti shareholder Singapore Telecommunications, which owns 31 percent of the Indian company. Both Bank of America and Goldman declined to comment.

Several other US banks are in talks to provide financing for the merger plan, sources say, which involves Bharti and MTNMTN buying into each other to form the world's number three wireless group.

While US lenders would like a cut of the deal, sources at the banks say there is a lot of discussion at top levels to determine how to proceed within the boundaries.

Meanwhile, Iran has cancelled negotiations with the Kuwaiti mobile operator, ZainZain, to become the country's third mobile network, just months after withdrawing the license from Etisalat.

Iran's telecommunications minister said ZainZain had failed to fulfill its obligations, the same language that was used when Etisalat's $400-million license was cancelled in May, The National wrote.

ZainZain was invited to become the country's third operator after the UAE's Etisalat, which won the initial tender, was stripped of its license. ZainZain officials have not publicly commented on the status of the company's negotiations with Iran.

ZainZain, however, made headlines around the world in the past week after it was revealed that it intends to sell its African operations, which currently account for more than half the Kuwaiti company's subscribers and revenues. It is seeking up to $10 billion for the operations, according to media reports, with France's Vivendi listed as an interested buyer.

The cancelled negotiations represent the third time the Iranian government has cut ties with an international telecoms company after appearing to award it the rights to operate in the republic.

The country's second mobile license was originally won by Turkey's Turkcell, but was later cancelled and re-awarded to MTNMTN of South Africa.

© Iran Daily 2009