A visit by top South African government officials to India before the September 30 deadline for exclusive talks between Bharti-MTN may not be enough to push for dual listing. Industry experts say it will not only require an amendment to the Companies Act 1956 but will also need full capital account convertibility, neither of which will be easy.

When asked in case the government allows dual listing, would it require changes in the licence conditions, A Raja, minister for communications and IT said, “Changes in the licence condition are always within the domain of Trai.”

Rajan Wadhawan, executive director of Price­waterHouse said, “Under pre­sent laws, dual listing is not possible.” He explained, though it could be a progressive step, the government would not look into it immediately. “Full capital account convertibility is a pre-condition for this,” he said. “About three years ago, RBI had initiated talks on full capital account convertibility, but so far there has been no headway.”

It was highly unlikely that RBI would adopt full capital account convertibility at this stage just when India appeared to be recovering from the global economic meltdown.

Bharat Anand, senior partner with Khaitan & company said that even in the most developed econ­omies dual listing was uncommon. “The holy grail of stock exchanges, which are London and New York, have very few examples of dual listing…It is highly unlikely that the government will look to bend laws especially when there are corporate interests vested,” he said.

However, Pankaj Karna, head merger and acquisition Grant Thornton, said that even if the notifications were passed before the deal went through it will not be a problem for both the Telco giants.