MTN ends talks with Reliance

African mobile operator MTN Group and India's Reliance Communications have been unable to reach agreement on a proposed merger, and the companies have mutually decided to end their talks. MTN and Reliance Communications started exclusive negotiations on 26 May. The decision to stop talks was due to "certain legal and regulatory issues" around the deal, MTN said in a statement. Reliance was facing a claim on its shares by Mukesh Ambani, estranged brother of Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani, and the recent sharp drop in share prices created obstacles to completing a deal. A deal would have created an emerging markets operator with activities in about two dozen countries and around 120 million subscribers. The failure to reach a deal with Reliance follows a decision by India's leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel in late May to also end talks with MTN. Bharti said it had called off the talks after MTN proposed a new structure which would have seen the Indian group becoming a unit of the South Africa-based group.