Anil Ambani is known for his bag of financial tricks and he may need to pull out something special when he sits at the negotiating table with the MTN's top brass.

Reliance Communications officials are getting various proposals ready, which Anil Ambani will then take up with the MTN CEO Phutuma Nhleko.

Looking at the political sensitiveness of the whole deal in South Africa, RCom may offer to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will have an equal shareholding of both MTN and RCom shareholders.

Under the SPV, initially only some assets of both the companies will be transferred to this SPV and this will be followed by the gradual creation of a merged entity.

Reliance officials feel that this structure will allow both the companies to function as independent entities in their countries while the senior management looks for synergies.

If the SPV works well then both companies can go ahead and merge their operations. Moreover, this also leaves room for the two companies going their separate ways in case things don't work out.

Now this proposal is yet to be tabled to MTN and there is more than one catch for Anil Ambani as MTN's valuation is much higher than RCom’s which means an equal partnership in the SPV may not seem so lucrative for the South African telecom operator.

The deal will also not give MTN shareholders an opportunity to exit the company at a high price.