Rcom To Continue To Look For Global Acquisitions: Anil Ambani

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Rcom to continue to look for global acquisitions: Anil Ambani

31 Jul, 2008, 2152 hrs IST, ET

MUMBAI: Undeterred by the failure of talks with South African telecom major MTN for a possible merger, Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Communications, today said the company would look at overseas acquisitions.

"We will continue to examine opportunities that have sustainable value creation for us, both on an organic and inorganic basis within the country and outside," Ambani told analysts during a conference call to discuss Q1 results.

He acknowledged that MTN was a big opportunity which the company had pursued.

"The MTN opportunity was one large opportunity which we did examine. I think, we have the management bandwidth, capacity and the capability for multi-tasking in the 21st century," the Chairman said.

Earlier this month RCom and MTN had called-off their exclusivity talks citing "certain legal and regulatory issues".

The proposed merger would have created an over 60 billion dollar telecom entity.

On May 26, RCom had entered into exclusive talks to combine with MTN. Then on July 9, both the companies decided to extend the period of exclusivity for their potential merger negotiations till July 21. But the deal was finally called off on July 18.

The regulatory hurdles rose after elder brother Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries (RIL) claimed first right of refusal to buy a controlling stake in RCom, based on an agreement dated January 2006.

The failure of the deal, could not be substituted by the two deals that RCom struck during the April-June period.