Billionaire Sunil Mittal, arguably India 's most successful telecom entrepreneur, may be on the verge of starting another revolution in the country's corporate world.
Mr Mittal, who has built his mobile operator Bharti Airtel from a bit player into a $40bn company in less than a decade, is now pondering a deal that could leave him holding a much smaller share in the group but turn it into a global player.
The deal, Bharti's proposed purchase of South Africa's MTN, would create one of the world's most rapidly growing emerging markets telecom operators.
The combined group would have 130m subscribers spread over 20 countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
But there is increasing speculation that Mr Mittal will not be able to persuade MTN to agree to a takeover unless the deal can be painted as a de facto merger to satisfy political sensitivities in South Africa.
Under this model, Bharti would need to buy 100 per cent of MTN, in the process issuing its own stock to shareholders of the South African operator as part payment for the deal.
This would leave MTN's major shareholders with holdings in the enlarged company roughly equal to those of Mr Mittal and Bharti's other major investor, Singapore Telecommunications. MTN executives would probably occupy key management roles in the transformed Bharti.
If Mr Mittal follows this model, he will become one of the first Indian billionaires willingly to dilute control in the interests of creating a global company.
Such a deal would face many hurdles, not the least the risks inherent in operating in the high-risk countries of Africa and the Middle East. But it would be truly revolutionary for Indian business.
Viennese waltz
Consolidation may seem inevitable in the airline industry but European governments are finding it hard to let go of their flag carriers, however troubled they may be.
The new Italian government continues to insist on finding an Italian solution to salvage its beleaguered national airline, Alitalia, and scotched the previous administration's plans to merge it with Air France-KLM.
Now it is the turn of the Austrians to fret about the future independence of their flag carrier, Austrian Airlines.
A Saudi Arabian investor has agreed to buy a 20 per cent stake in the airline and pump in euro150m ($231m). He has since made additional demands after the airline reported a first-quarter loss and its shares slumped.
These demands have been deemed unacceptable by the Austrian authorities because Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa al Jaber wants a bigger stake at a lower price, giving him a blocking minority in the flag carrier. Unless the two sides can sort out their differences, some suggest Lufthansa could pounce on the opportunity to forge a partnership with Austrian.
This could eventually lead to a merger that many regard as economically logical.
But Vienna is worried at the possible loss of the airline's independence. Worse, there would be the risk of undermining the role of Vienna airport since Lufthansa would presumably use it as a feeder for its Munich hub. A good reason to try to find some way to keep waltzing with the Sheikh.
Declining fortunes
What a difference a year makes. Exactly this time last May, Francis Salway upset the UK commercial property world when he predicted that prices would return to "equilibrium" after several years when "everything with the letters 'property' attached to it rose in value."
That phenomenon of course was not confined to the UK and now price falls are spreading to other European markets.
Mr Salway, chief executive of Land Securities, was not wrong about the declines. He reported a pound 1.3bn ($2.5bn) writedown in the developer's portfolio to £13.6bn over the past year.
But that was less than feared in what could be the first bit of "not bad" news from the UK property world in recent months.
Land Securities is the biggest, and the first, of the big UK property groups to report - British Land and Great Portland come forward next week.
Portland, with its high reliance on West End London rents, could be a particularly interesting barometer of economic health. This time last year, it talked of "healthy returns" from London's expanding economy but by November it admitted that the market had been "engulfed in negative sentiment."
Land Securities said yield falls on its London holdings were partly offset by strong rental growth - boding well for its rival's performance. But that might not be enough to convince jittery markets that the storm has fully been weathered.
Land added a new appendix to its presentation, covering lease expiries on City offices, after investor requests.
Salway wasn't much more optimistic on the outlook this time than last year but the difference now is that he isn't the only one singing that tune.
