Unlike major western groups, which rely on what they have already achieved, the Chinese, Indian and South African companies are surging forward in external growth operations. Petrochina of China, a company leading the way in market capitalisation ($351 billion on 25 March 2009 ahead of American ExxonMobil, with $336 billion, and Chinese ICBC, $208 billion), has decided to take over control of Singapore Petroleum Corp. With this deal, the Singaporean group has a value of $2.2 billion. The Indian operator, Bharti Airtel, for its part, has resumed negotiation with its South African counterpart, MTN, with a view to a merger deal, a $23 billion operation that would create a giant mobile operator with over 200 million clients in emerging countries. (I.L./transl.jl)