By Sandeep Gurumurthi/CNBC-TV18

Reports suggest that Bharti and Reliance Communications are interested in African telecom giant, MTN. Bharti's CEO Sunil Mittal said the firm has not made any bid and nothing is on the table yet.

According to Eleni Giokos of CNBC-Africa, the bidding war for MTN has begun at least in rumour. "A general meeting is underway at the moment and telecom companies are the biggest topic on their agenda. But we haven’t confirmed this. The meeting will be over by late afternoon. We have spoken to MTNs press office and they weren’t able to give us any more information."

Vodafone, she said, is rumored to be one of the bidders for MTN. "We have got companies like Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications, and Bharti Airtel. We have also got rumoured Arun Sarin’s Vodafone as well, and even the likes of China Mobile. There are going to be a few negatives facing MTN should a company from India look into buying a stake in the company."

Giokos said the exposure for Indian companies should they buy a stake into MTN is going to be very vast. "They will have exposure as you mentioned into 21 countries across Africa. MTN also operate in Europe and Iran at the moment. The bid is expected to be worth about USD 35 billion and it is going to have quite a lot of perks. But analysts are saying that MTN will be suffering a bit because although the Indian companies will be buying a stake in the company, it won’t necessarily have exposure to the Indian market. So, it is going to be quite an interesting dynamic that will play out there."

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