Chart hit

6 May 2008 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

The Asiacentric UK bank has landed a role on a potential $80bn tieup between India s Bharti Airtel and South Africa s MTN. With M&A activity decamping to emerging markets, the likes of StanChart have a prime opportunity to snatch juicy mandates from their bulgebracket rivals.

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Standard Chartered, the UK bank, is understood to be advising Bharti Airtel, the Indian mobile telecom operator that is in talks with South Africa's MTN Group. The bank is working alongside Goldman Sachs to provide financing for a potential bid for half of MTN that would value the company's equity at $37bn, according to the Financial Times. Together, Bharti and MTN would be worth around $80bn on an equity basis.

StanChart (click here for a share price chart) has retail and wholesale businesses focused predominantly on emerging markets such as Asia and Africa, and has around 20 M&A advisors based in India. It was originally formed in the midnineteenth centure from a merger of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China and the Standard Bank of British South Africa.

Mervyn Davies, chairman of Standard Chartered, is a nonexecutive director with Breakingviews.

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