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Austria seeks a possible merger for Telekom Austria, Orascom being tracked closely (Austria)

  • October 6th, 2008
  • 7:16 am

Austria’s OeIAG hires JP Morgan to look for a suitable merger partner for Telekom Austria and to seek an advatageous deal with Orascom.
JP Morgan is in talks with many interested parties hailing from Russia and Middle East, but sees Orascom as the most beneficial for Telekom Austria.

   

France Telecom shifts it’s focus back on Africa (France)

  • September 16th, 2008
  • 7:20 am

According to France Telecom’s chief executive Didier Lombard, FT is planning to shift it’s focus back on Africa, by making acquisitons in Anglophone countries.
The French group now plans to return to its strategy of small deals in high-growth emerging markets.
The telco according to Mr. Lombard, will largely remain unaffected by the economic slowdown, and suggests it could increase its payout to shareholders.
The cashflow generated in 2008 seems to be “a little bit better” than the predicted €7.8bn ($11.07bn). FT is also looking forward to raise the free cashflow ratioreturned to the investors above the targeted 45%, still a hint.
France Telecom, for the first time in history, paid out an interim dividend to shareholders last week, and Mr Lombard said: “It’s a kind of friendly attitude towards our investors and I am sure that the board will want to continue in the same way.”
France Telecom which operates in 13 African countries, mostly the western parts of the continent, last year made an important and significant acquisition by purchasing a controlling stake in Telkom Kenya, Kenya’s leading telecoms company, for $390m.
“Now we are looking at all the African territories and probably we will discover that we continue in the same direction,” said Mr Lombard.
There are no specific targets. France Telecom faces stiff competition in Africa from MTN and Vodafone. Mr Lombard denies the acquisitions of a leading African mobile operator, such as MTN or Orascom of Egypt, “because the value is already in the price”.
France Telecom’s focus will be on building new infrastructure and offering new services as it did in Niger. “It’s a very profitable situation, but we created value ourselves, We are not a bank, We are a telco.”
The telco rules out the sale of Orange UK’s underperforming fixed-line broadband business, as t is important to retain it if France Telecom were to compete against BT in providing telecoms services to companies.

   

Orascom intends to buy Telekom Austria (Egypt)

  • September 9th, 2008
  • 10:17 am

According to a local media report, Egypt-based telecommunications operator Orascom is interested in buying Telekom Austria and has held talks with the operator and its main shareholder. Under this merger, Austria’s government holding company OeIAG would keep a stake in the merged company. The report said Orascom was looking at working with private equity group Weather Investments for financing. Stefano Songini, spokesman of Weather Investments said, he could not comment on whether talks about Telekom Austria had taken place. He said that in general Weather Investments had been talking to a number of large telecom operators. 28% of Telekom Austria is owned by OeIAG on behalf of the government and would need approval from the government for a sale of the stake.Telekom Austria CEO Boris Nemsic said last month he was open but neutral on possible strategic partnerships with other operators.

Shalaby is appointed as the Chairman of ECMS (Egypt)

  • August 25th, 2008
  • 1:13 pm

Orascom Telecom Holding announces that the board of directors of the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (“ECMS”) nominated Mr. Alex Shalaby to become its chairman. Shalaby will be replacing Naguib Sawiris, now CEO of the company, will take over the chairmanship on 1 September, while Hassan Kabbani has been appointed as Shalaby’s replacement. Kabbani, worked for France Telecom before joining Orascom Telecom in 1998, and has been running the Algerian mobile operator Djezzy since 2003. Sawiris, will remain on the board at Mobinil, is also chairman of Orascom Telecom, which owns stakes in both Mobinil and Djezzy. Djezzy has promoted CTO Tamer El Mahdy to replace Kabbani as its new CEO.

Mobile phone networks to be privatised soon (Lebanon)

  • August 13th, 2008
  • 1:57 pm

According to local media report, Lebanon’s parliament has approved the new ‘national unity’ cabinet line-up, which is now expected to announce a commitment to privatise the country’s two mobile phone networks. Originally, the privatisation was set for the month of february but suffered delay caused by political deadlock.  The sale of controlling stakes in the GSM mobile companies, MIC1 and MIC2, might now be delayed until after parliamentary elections set for May 2009 said Lebanon’s Ministry of Telecommunications.

MIC1 is currently branded Alfa and managed by a joint venture between DeTeCon International, part of the Deutsche Telekom group, and Saudi Arabia’s FAL Holding. MIC2 is currently managed by Kuwait’s Zain Group under the MTC Touch Lebanon banner. It is anticipated that telecoms including Zain, Etisalat, Orascom, Qatar Telecom and Saudi Telecom to take part in the upcoming auction.

Mobilink leads as mobile penetration in Pakistan surpasses 50% in Q2′08 (Pakistan)

  • July 23rd, 2008
  • 7:42 am

The growth rate of mobile connection in Pakistan has been slowing, with the monthly growth rate hiting a new low of 1.5%, in June. On a rolling annual basis, growth dipped below 40% for the first time since 2000, although 39.4% still represents a strong annual rate.

Mobile penetration in Pakistan surpassed 50% during the second quarter of 2008, with an end-June figure of 51.0%. The total number of mobile connections at the end of the month was 88.02m. With monthly net additions averaging around 1.9m so far this year, the 90m mark looks set to be surpassed before the end of the third quarter.

Egypt delays fixed-line licence deadline (Egypt)

  • July 9th, 2008
  • 2:12 pm

Regulator blames economic turmoil for decision to postpone bidding deadline for a second time; major global operators interested in entering Egypt.

Egypt’s regulator has announced it is delaying for the second time the bid submission deadline for a second nationwide fixed-line licence. 
“The current disturbances witnessed by global markets have weighed in favour of the decision to postpone,” said the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), in the report.

The deadline for the submission of bids was originally 19 June, however Egypt pushed it back to 29 July, claiming it needed more time for discussions on interconnection agreements between the country’s fixed and mobile players.

The NTRA said Monday that it is further postponing the deadline until 18 September, a move it claims will give it enough time to “lay the foundations” for a fixed-to-mobile interconnectivity agreement.

Incumbent operator Telecom Egypt is the currently the country’s only fixed-line operator, a monopoly that is due to end with the sale of the second licence.

Over the last year the telco has seen a drop in voice revenue, which it attributes to aggressive pricing campaigns by Egypt’s mobile operators.

At the end of the first quarter Telecom Egypt reported total voice revenues of 709 million Egyptian pounds (US$134 million), down from EGP837 million a year earlier.

And market pressure is set to increase with the introduction of a new fixed-line player.

The NTRA said that a number of companies have expressed an interest in entering the Egyptian market by paying $10,000 for the handbook that sets out the conditions and specifications for the licence.

The regulator lists France Telecom, Etisalat, and Orascom as having bought the booklet, as well as equipment vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

   

 

Weather rains on Orascom’s buy-back plans

  • May 29th, 2008
  • 1:50 pm

Italian holding company Weather Investments does not intend to sell any of its shares in Orascom Telecom.

The report said Orascom is seeking to buy back 12 million of its own shares for about €119 million (US$186 million).

Weather, which is owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris and has a controlling stake in Orascom Telecom, said in April it would sell some of its OT shares to OT under a previous buy-back offer which ended on May 14.

The earlier buyback offer, for 106 million shares, was more than three times subscribed, but neither company announced how many shares, if any, Weather had sold, the Reuters.

   

NTT DoCoMo to fight Vodafone for AKTEL stake?

  • May 16th, 2008
  • 2:26 pm

Japanese cellco NTT DoCoMo has placed an offer for a 30% stake in GSM operator Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL) currently owned by Bangladeshi conglomerate AK Khan & Co, reports local newspaper the Daily Star. The stake, valued at around USD300 million, has also been targeted by UK-based Vodafone Group, which has previously sent representatives to negotiate with AK Khan & Co. ‘It is true that we have tendered a bid for the AKTEL stake,’ an official of NTT DoCoMo confirmed to the Star, whilst an AKTEL official told the paper, ‘We are still in the dark about our new partner. But something is going on. NTT DoCoMo is on the priority list.’ AKTEL is 70%-owned by Telekom Malaysia, and is currently in third place in Bangladesh’s mobile market. According to regulator the BTRC, the Malaysian-owned firm’s subscriber base rose by 90,000 in the first three months of 2008 to 7.45 million users, but it fell behind Orascom Telecom subsidiary Banglalink’s customer base, which grew by 430,000 to 8.31 million in the same period.

   

 

 

 

 

 

Bharti Airtel falls on concerns of possible bidding war for MTN

  • May 13th, 2008
  • 3:15 pm

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 148.13 points, or 0.83%, to 17,004.67, as a retreat in oil prices eased worries about inflation and after news of a takeover deal in the technology sector helped drive Wall Street higher on Monday, 12 May 2008.

On BSE, 79,554 shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 5.19 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 846 and a low of Rs 826 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 1,149 on 10 October 2007 and the stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 700 on 22 January 2008.

India’s largest telecom services provider by sales had underperformed the market over the past one month till 12 May 2008, gaining 4.23% compared to the Sensex’s return of 6.66%. It had also underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 2.05% compared to Sensex’s return of 1.52%.

The company’s current equity is Rs 1,897.92 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 830.50 discounts its Q4 March 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 37.77, by a PE multiple of 21.98.

Bharti had recently said it was in exploratory talks for a stake in MTN. Media reports suggest Bharti may bid for a controlling 51% stake in MTN

Other potential contenders such as China Mobile, Orascom and Vodafone have all said they are interested in the African market, but are not bidding for MTN.

While Bharti’s offer for MTN is said to be around rand 165 per share, international media said the company would raise this to around rand 175 per share. Reports added that Indian telco is prepared to offer up to rand 200 per share. This values MTN at around $45-$50 billion. The proposal envisages acquisition of 51% in MTN by Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, Bharti said Monday, 12 May 2008, it has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to India, later this year.

Bharti Airtel reported 39.30% rise in net profit to Rs 1792.30 crore on 42.1% increase in sales to Rs 7,413.73 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007.

The company provides mobile telecommunication services in India. It also provides fixed-line, VSAT, Internet and broadband services.