Citi says a Bharti-MTN deal will take 4 months for OK

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) and South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J), which are in exclusive merger talks till the end of July, will still take up to four months for regulatory and other approvals, Citigroup said.

Bharti and MTN last month revived talks to create a major emerging market telecoms group, a year after previous talks broke down over who would control a merged entity.

"If the deal goes through, it would require 2-4 months for various external approvals, including regulatory approvals," Citigroup said in a report, citing a presentation made by Bharti in an investor conference hosted by the brokerage.

Under the proposal unveiled in May, Bharti would be left with 49 percent of MTN, while the South African firm and its shareholders would get 36 percent of Bharti. That could lead to a full merger of the companies.

MTN Group on Wednesday declined to comment on merger talks with Bharti at its AGM.

Citigroup also said Bharti expected bids for the upcoming third-generation spectrum to be "rational" and saw a "marginal" increase in capital expenditure as 3G spending would be partly replacing expenditure on 2G networks.

Bharti has proposed capital expenditure of about $2 billion for the fiscal year to March 2010. This does not include possible investment on 3G networks and in its tower business.

Shares in Bharti, which has a market value of about $31 billion, closed 0.1 percent higher at 797.90 rupees in a Mumbai market that fell 0.5 percent.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)