Failure of deal part of game, says Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today described the failure of talks between India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN on the $23-billion merger deal as "part of the game".

"You know sometimes amidst the big companies ... These deals become successful, sometimes these deals fail. This is part of the game," Mukherjee told reporters.

The proposed mega deal, which would have been the world's largest in the telecom sector, fell through for the second time in just over a year after the end of the exclusivity period yesterday.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti called off discussions with MTN, citing the South African government's rejection of the proposed merger structure, which would have created the world's third-largest telecom company with combined revenues of over $20 billion annually and a subscriber base of over 200 million.

The deal failed as Indian laws did not provide for dual listing of shares, an insistence of the South African government.

When asked if the deal termination had political reasons more than legal issues, Mukherjee said, "I am not making any comment on this. I have stated you the fact."