MTN-Reliance Communication talks extended to July 21

Johannesburg: South African mobile phone operator MTN Group said on Wednesday it had agreed to extend its exclusive talks with India's Reliance Communications until July 21, 2008.

MTN and Reliance Communications started talks on May 26 that could create a $66 billion emerging markets telecoms group with operations in about two-dozen countries and around 120 million subscribers.

When the talks began, MTN had a market capitalisation of $38 billion and Reliance Communications was worth $28 billion, but a sharp slide in markets has eroded valuations.