MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s largest mobile-phone operator, said emerging-market acquisition opportunities are limited and that it will focus on returning cash to shareholders and keeping costs under control.

“There are a limited number of value-accretive consolidation opportunities left within emerging market telecoms,” the company said weekend in a statement.

MTN’s four most recent attempts to close a deal have ended in failure. Last month the Cresta, South Africa-based company ended talks with Weather Investments SpA on buying as much as $10 billion in assets of Orascom Holdings SAE.
MTN and India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd. failed to reach agreement for a second time last year, while talks with India’s Reliance Communications Ltd. collapsed in 2008.
“They are sobering up to the fact that growth opportunities in emerging markets are not as lucrative as they used to be, and that cash in the hands of shareholders is of more value,” Jan Louw, an analyst with Afrifocus Securities Ltd., said in a phone interview from Johannesburg.

While MTN will continue to evaluate opportunities, the company plans to focus more on cutting costs by standardizing systems, processes and technologies, according to the statement. Capital expenditure will also slow and management will look for ways “to meaningfully improve cash returns to shareholders,” the company said.