Bharti Airtel chair to step down from StanChart board

BANGALORE, July 14 (Reuters) - The chairman of Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO), India's leading mobile operator, will resign from the board of Standard Chartered (STAN.L) with effect from July 31, according to a company statement on Tuesday.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, who has been a non-executive director of Standard Chartered since August 2007, said he was resigning as he found it difficult to balance involvement with Bharti Enterprises with his role of a bank board member.

Bharti Enterprises is the unlisted parent of Bharti Airtel.

Standard Chartered is advising Bharti in a deal that could lead to a merger with South Africa's MTN Group (MTNJ.J), creating the world's No. 3 wireless group with more than 200 million subscribers and combined revenue of $20 billion. [ID:nLP34850] (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by David Cowell)