Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, the telecommunications services provider, is to be renamed Bharti Airtel Ltd. The board of directors of the company approved the change of name today. The change is subject toapproval from shareholders and regulatory clearances.
According to a company release, “The word Tele-Ventures reflected the activity of the company toundertake ventures/make investments in the telecom sector. “However, after the merger of Bharti Cellular Ltd and Bharti Infotel Ltd with Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, the company has become an operating company in the telecom sector. The name change will reflect the present nature of activities of the company.”According to Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises, said:”Over the years, we have nurtured and grown the Airtel brand. The use of word Airtel in the name of the
company will reflect the brand as well as the activity of the company. Having brought all our service offerings under the Airtel brand umbrella, this change will be another step towards making Airtel the most admired brand in the country.”
Wireless Mobile Telecom
ASIA : The 3GSM World Congress Asia - the fastest growing mobile communications event in the region - will bring together a host of industry leaders and personalities from across Asia’s booming mobile industry.
The mobile operator CEOs speaking at the 2006 event, which will be held in Singapore between October 16th and October 20th, include Sunil Mittal from Bharti Televentures, Dr Young-Chu Cho from KTF, Naguib Sawiris from Orascom, Lee Hsien Yang from SingTel Group, Dato Abdul Wahid Omar from Telekom Malaysia, Arve Johansen from Telenor, Sol Trujillo from Telstra and Alexander Izosimov from VimpelCom. Produced by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association for the mobile industry, the 3GSM World Congress Asia will also feature top executives from other mobile-related industries, such as Alejandro Zubillaga, Executive Vice President Digital Strategy and Business Development at Warner Music Group, and Dr Sachio Semmoto, Founder and CEO of eAccess.
“For this year’s 3GSM Congress in Asia, we have assembled a top-class, yet diverse, line-up of speakers that will pinpoint the key trends in the region’s dynamic and complex market for mobile communications,” said Bill Gajda, the chief marketing officer of the GSM Association. “The Congress is the only event in Asia to attract the top ranking executives from the region’s operator community.”
The Congress presentations, revolving around the central theme of ‘Risk and Reward’, will cover topics ranging from new business models for mobile operators, to the role of China, universal access in emerging markets, the mobile boom in India, mobile virtual network operators and infotainment and content. The 2006 event will also host the GSMA Members Forum - the only annual meeting open to the entire GSMA membership.
This year’s Congress also sees the introduction of the GSMA’s “Asia Mobile Innovation Awards.” These awards are designed to support innovation in the Asian mobile industry by bringing together start-up companies, industry investors, mobile operators and vendors
Source- http://www.3g.co.uk
Technorati : 3 GSM, Asia, Bharti Televentures, China, KTF, Orascom, Singtel, Telekom Malaysia, Telenor, Telestra, Warner Music Group, eAccess, operator
Ice Rocket : 3 GSM, Asia, Bharti Televentures, China, KTF, Orascom, Singtel, Telekom Malaysia, Telenor, Telestra, eAccess, operator
NEW DELHI: India’s telecom sector has a cause to celebrate, with strong evidence of domestic valuations keeping pace with the highest valued mobile telephone companies in the world - China Mobile and Vodafone.
An analysis of Bharti Enterprises subscriber numbers and stock performance, for example, shows its ratings comparable with China Mobile, the big daddy of mobile telephony in China and Vodafone, the world’s second largest mobile company.
Last week, China Mobile toppled Vodafone to become the world’s most highly valued telecom firm. China Mobiles shares closed at HK$51.50, valuing the company at US$131.46 billion, while Vodafone’s shares closed at 110 p in London, valuing the firm at US$123.11 billion.
China Mobile, with 200 million subscribers, is also the world’s largest mobile operator, ahead of Vodafone’s 186 million global subscribers.
Vodafone, however, remains ahead in terms of its global footprint across 54 countries. In India, it invested US$1.5 billion in Bharti in October 2005.
China Mobile’s subscriber base works out to about 8.3 times and Vodafone’s roughly 7.75 times Bharti’s 24.3 million subscribers. Bharti Enterprises boasts of a 21.2% market share, in comparison to China Mobile’s 40%.
Interestingly, at an average share price of Rs 412, Bharti’s valuation works out to about $16 billion or Rs 72,000 crore. Analysts point out that this mirrors China Mobile and Vodafone, as their valuations, just as with subscriber numbers, works out to around 8.3 times and 7.75 times that of BhartiTele ’s respectively. The striking feature of this comparison is that subscriber and valuation multiples are exactly comparable and proportionate across three firms.
This is a conclusive evidence that Bharti’s valuation (minus some of its other businesses such as Long Distance, and others), even at a fraction of China Mobile and Vodafone’s subscriber base, is globally benchmarked.
Given economies of scale and projections of doubling of mobile subscribers to 200 million by December 2007, it should be fair to expect Bharti to exceed 40 million subscribers before the close of financial year 2006-07, with a proportionate increase in shareholders value.
With these impressive valuations, it is no surprise that like Birlas and Tatas in the recent past, Hutch and Essar are similarly embroiled in bitter battles for control.
The flip side of this spectacular performance is its propensity to strengthen the argument for charging big bucks to these multi-billion dollar corporations in the controversial allocation of 3G spectrum.
Source- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Technorati : 3G, Airtel, Bharti Televentures, Birla, China Mobile, Essar, GSM, Hutch, Tata, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : 3G, Airtel, Bharti Televentures, Birla, Essar, Hutch, Tata, V
Bharti Tele-ventures to be renamed Bharti Airtel
