Bharti Enterprises pulls plug on telecom mega-merger talks with Tata Group

Indian telecom giant Airtel's parent company Bharti Enterprises has decided to pull the plug on the mega-merger talks with Tata Group's telecom, direct-to-home TV and overseas cables businesses, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The Sunil Mittal-led company, with debt of Rs 87,840 crore by the end of June, has decided to instead focus on closing other acquisitions and takeover of Telenor India. The company is also planning a strategic stake sale in their tower arm Bharti Infratel, in an attempt to tackle intense competition in the telecom market.

The decision to drop the deal with the Tata Group was taken after SingTel — which owns one-third of Airtel's stake — said it was only interested in Tata Telecommunications and Tata Teleservices and not in other enterprises. It also said that Bharti should not take up a complex "multi-play" buyout that would involve public shareholders and the government of India.

However, it is still not clear whether the Bharti board has rejected the proposal formally, people directly involved in the matter told ET. They added that the proposal was discussed among the “highest leadership forums of the group.”

The talks of a possible merger between Tata Teleservices, Tata Communications and Tata Sky with entities of Bharti Airtel, including the direct-to-home (DTH) TV services, was said to have gathered pace after Tata Sons' new Chairman N Chandrasekaran took charge in January 2017.