ID :
13372
Tue, 07/22/2008 - 13:36
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/13372
The shortlink copeid
It's 'Aitraaz' as always for MTN in India;From '04 till Monday
New Delhi, July 22 (PTI) The word 'Aitraaz' seems to have stuck with South African telecom major M.T.N. in India -- from its first mention four years ago in a Bollywood blockbuster in 2004 to the two instances this year regarding its encounterswith two corporate houses -- Mittals and Ambanis.
M.T.N. possibly first found its mention in India in a super-hit Hindi movie named 'Aitraaz', meaning objection, which had stars like Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and KareenaKapoor.
The movie, incidentally a court-room drama, had its lead actors asserting their 'Aitraaz' to each other over issues like relationships, illicit affairs and other allegations and had the main protagonist, played by Akshay, as an employee of the South African mobile firm M.T.N. when he meets theantagonist, whose role was essayed by Priyanka.
When the movie hit the theaters in 2004 it became aninstant hit, but not much attention might had been on M.T.N.
at that time and hardly had any one visualised that the name of this company would grab the headlines across the media fouryears later in 2008.
This time around, M.T.N. got its mention in India not because of a movie, but for an entirely business proposition -- it entered into negotiations earlier this year for a potential business amalgamation deal with the country's top private sector telecom player Bharti Airtel -- run bybillionaire businessman Sunil Mittal.
After days of talks over the deal table, Bharti expressed its 'Aitraaz' May 24 to certain deal structuresproposed by M.T.N. and disengaged itself from the talks.
Bharti said that after "an in-principle agreement" was reached for a possible transaction, M.T.N. presented "acompletely different structure" from what was agreed.
The Indian firm alleged M.T.N. of proposing a deal that would have made it an arm of the South African firm and due to this "Bharti's vision of transforming itself from a home grown Indian company to a true Indian multinational telecom giant, symbolising the pride of India, would have been severely compromised and this was completely unacceptable to Bharti." Soon after Bharti's 'Aitraaz' May 24, M.T.N. May 26 announced joining on the deal table with another Indian telecom giant, Reliance Communications, run by another Indianbillionaire Anil Ambani.
While the talks were considered to be going smoothly with Reliance Communications (R.COM.) for some days, it witnessed another 'Aitraaz' surfacing on June 12 — this time from Reliance Industries Limited (R.I.L.), India's most valued corporate entity, run by Anil's estranged elder brother MukeshAmbani.
R.I.L.'s objection, which is believed to have been the key reason in the collapse of the exclusive negotiations between R.COM. and M.T.N. late last week, was to a deal structure that envisaged R.COM. selling a majority stake toM.T.N.
While R.COM. vigorously defended R.I.L.'s claims, the Mukesh Ambani group firm went ahead with asking the Anil Ambani group firm to engage in mutual conciliation process, failing which it threatened to start the arbitration processto resolve the dispute.
R.COM. refused to engage in any conciliatory talks and rather offered a clarificatory meeting, which in turn was rebuffed by R.I.L.. Thereafter, R.I.L. announced July 17 the start of arbitration process by nominating former SupremeCourt Judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy as an arbitrator.
Two days after the start of arbitration proceedings, M.T.N. and R.COM. announced the collapse of their talks - a development that many saw R.I.L.'s 'Aitraaz' proving to be the final nail in M.T.N.'s current plans for an Indian deal, although speculations are still rife that M.T.N. might return to explore possibilities of a deal with Bharti, notwithstanding the earlier 'Aitraaz.'
M.T.N. possibly first found its mention in India in a super-hit Hindi movie named 'Aitraaz', meaning objection, which had stars like Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and KareenaKapoor.
The movie, incidentally a court-room drama, had its lead actors asserting their 'Aitraaz' to each other over issues like relationships, illicit affairs and other allegations and had the main protagonist, played by Akshay, as an employee of the South African mobile firm M.T.N. when he meets theantagonist, whose role was essayed by Priyanka.
When the movie hit the theaters in 2004 it became aninstant hit, but not much attention might had been on M.T.N.
at that time and hardly had any one visualised that the name of this company would grab the headlines across the media fouryears later in 2008.
This time around, M.T.N. got its mention in India not because of a movie, but for an entirely business proposition -- it entered into negotiations earlier this year for a potential business amalgamation deal with the country's top private sector telecom player Bharti Airtel -- run bybillionaire businessman Sunil Mittal.
After days of talks over the deal table, Bharti expressed its 'Aitraaz' May 24 to certain deal structuresproposed by M.T.N. and disengaged itself from the talks.
Bharti said that after "an in-principle agreement" was reached for a possible transaction, M.T.N. presented "acompletely different structure" from what was agreed.
The Indian firm alleged M.T.N. of proposing a deal that would have made it an arm of the South African firm and due to this "Bharti's vision of transforming itself from a home grown Indian company to a true Indian multinational telecom giant, symbolising the pride of India, would have been severely compromised and this was completely unacceptable to Bharti." Soon after Bharti's 'Aitraaz' May 24, M.T.N. May 26 announced joining on the deal table with another Indian telecom giant, Reliance Communications, run by another Indianbillionaire Anil Ambani.
While the talks were considered to be going smoothly with Reliance Communications (R.COM.) for some days, it witnessed another 'Aitraaz' surfacing on June 12 — this time from Reliance Industries Limited (R.I.L.), India's most valued corporate entity, run by Anil's estranged elder brother MukeshAmbani.
R.I.L.'s objection, which is believed to have been the key reason in the collapse of the exclusive negotiations between R.COM. and M.T.N. late last week, was to a deal structure that envisaged R.COM. selling a majority stake toM.T.N.
While R.COM. vigorously defended R.I.L.'s claims, the Mukesh Ambani group firm went ahead with asking the Anil Ambani group firm to engage in mutual conciliation process, failing which it threatened to start the arbitration processto resolve the dispute.
R.COM. refused to engage in any conciliatory talks and rather offered a clarificatory meeting, which in turn was rebuffed by R.I.L.. Thereafter, R.I.L. announced July 17 the start of arbitration process by nominating former SupremeCourt Judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy as an arbitrator.
Two days after the start of arbitration proceedings, M.T.N. and R.COM. announced the collapse of their talks - a development that many saw R.I.L.'s 'Aitraaz' proving to be the final nail in M.T.N.'s current plans for an Indian deal, although speculations are still rife that M.T.N. might return to explore possibilities of a deal with Bharti, notwithstanding the earlier 'Aitraaz.'
