India's Bharti may bid for South Africa's MTN - FT

SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), India's top mobile phone firm, may bid for South African telecommunications group MTN in what would be its biggest foreign acquisition, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper quoted an unidentified person familiar with the deliberations as saying that Bharti's board members were in advanced discussions about its growth strategy, which had largely been organic to date.

The person said the board would decide whether to press ahead with a "transformational piece of M&A" and a bid for MTN (MTNJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was at the forefront of the ideas under consideration, although he said it was premature to say it would launch a tender offer.

The FT said Standard Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was advising Bharti and that Singapore Telecommunications (STEL.SI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which owned 30.5 percent of Bharti at the end of 2007 and supported the plan, was being advised by Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti's founder and chairman, told the newspaper that Thursday's board meeting was "just about our quarterly results".

"Of course, we talk to people all the time and don't preclude anything. All I can tell you is how things stand today. That said, this is a competitive business environment and I do not want to be compromised by ruling things out for months." (Reporting by Jan Dahinten; Editing by Alan Raybould)