Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao unveils that the company is interested in bringing itself to the Nigerian mobile market.’It doesn’t take a very sophisticated analysis to see it is one of the very few large markets with decent GDP, a young population and the classic conditions for being interesting for Vodafone,’ he said. ‘Despite the fact that Vodafone has expanded its operations tremendously across emerging markets in the past two years with acquisitions in Turkey, India, South Africa and Ghana to make up for slower growth in Europe, the Nigeria telecoms sector is a prized and valuable market that we will be glad to operate in.’ Vodafone additionally, plans to stick to its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless.
Wireless Federation » archive for 'Stake'
Vodafone eager to establish its presence in Nigeria
- November 22nd, 2008
- 5:03 am
Slovenia to sell 10% of Telekom Slovenije (Slovenia)
- November 17th, 2008
- 6:27 am
Sod, a partly state owned fund, which presently acquires 14.21% stake, announces a tender of 635,548 shares in Telekom Slovenije put up for sale. The following shares reperesent 10% of Telekom Slovenije, one of the nation’s leading operator. The deadline for the submission of offers is 3 December, while the bids expire on 2 February’09. Bidders must acquire a minimum 196,064 shares or 3 percent.
NTT DoCoMo to buy 26% stake in Tata Tele for $2.7 billion (Japan, India)
- November 13th, 2008
- 4:47 am
NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile operator says it would buy 26% stake in the Indian mobile operator Tata Teleservices Ltd for $2.7 billion. NTT also adds a further possibility of buying the majority stake.
According to DoCoMo chief executive Ryuji Yamada, the company will for now endeavour to make the alliance work with a holding of 26% but left open the possibility of raising its stake in the future.
Vodafone agrees to raise stake in Polkomtel to 24.4% (Poland)
- October 31st, 2008
- 5:24 am
Vodafone agrees to purchase an additional 4.8% stake in Polkomtel, Poland priced at EUR 176 million from Danish operator TDC. This will give rise to Vodafone’s stake from 19.6% to 24.4%. Vodafone along with the other shareholders of Polkomtel, elected to exercise its pre-emptive rights, pro rata to its existing shareholding of 19.6%, over TDC’s shareholding in Polkomtel, which arose following the change of control of TDC in February 2006. TDC, back in 2006, had agreed to sell its remaining stake in Polkomtel to other Polish shareholders. However, Vodafone disputed the sale process and the acquisition by the Polish shareholders was suspended by a court injunct2008-end. TDC said the sale of the entire Polkomtel stake will result in a one-time gain of DKK 4.0 billion in Q4.
Telenor to own 60% of Unitech Wireless for $1.07Bn (India, Norway)
- October 30th, 2008
- 5:54 am
Telenor, the Norwegian mobile operator, agrees to buy 60% stake in India based Unitech Wireless for a priced at $1.07 billion. Unitech being a new entrant to the Indian mobile market plans to launch its services by mid-2009.
The initial investment will be made by Telenor Asia in four phases which will be done with by September-end 2009. Telenor will initially use credit facilities and commercial paper to finance the deal, and pay this back with a rights issue worth NOK 12 billion planned for Q1 2009.
European biggie set to aquire 43% stake in Unitech Wireless (India)
- October 20th, 2008
- 6:44 am
Unitech Wireless’ 43% stakes are set to be acquired by a European telecom giant at the price of $1.4 billion. According to the sources the deal is on the verge of completition, probably by the weekend.
Unitech Wireless was earlier in talks with Telecom Italia and Telenor of which Telecom Italia left as there were differences over valuation and management structure of the firm.
The European firm plans to increase it’s stake gradually in the teleco over a period of time to majority, which for now is based on equal representation on board.
“The chief financial officer will be appointed by the foreign partner, while the executive chairman will be nominated by Unitech,” sources said.
The deal will be announced by the weekend once a management team of the European firm comes for the last formalities.
No sale of Telekom Srbija’s majority stake until early 2009 (Serbia)
- August 29th, 2008
- 1:10 pm
Serbia’s government seems in no mood to begin discussions on the sales of Telekom Srbija’s majority stake until early 2009. Deutsche Telekom has reportedly shown interest in the acquisition of stake. Belgrade is expected to select a privatisation consultant to advise on the sale of the telco in the next few days; seven international investment banks are believed to be competing for the contract.
Kuwait Telecom sale begins on 22 August (Kuwait)
- August 19th, 2008
- 1:41 pm
STC’s subsidiary in Kuwait is selling off a 25% stake worth KWD25 million (USD93 million).
The sale, reportedly, will begin on 22nd August, will come as a part of the deal agreed when STC was awarded Kuwait’s third national GSM licence in November 2007.
Kuwait Telecom, will also a 25% interest to government-backed institutions including the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Public Institute for Social Security. STC’s local partners will receive a 24% stake while the Saudi telco will retain a 26% share.
Protestors on streets to oppose the 70% sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone UK (Ghana)
- August 13th, 2008
- 6:22 am
There has been a mass protest outside Ghana parliament on Tuesday against the 70% stake sale of Ghana telecom to Vodafone UK.
This million dollar deal is expected to ratify, as the demonstration took place during the emergency session of parliament.
According to the protestors the deal is not in nation’s interest.
Vodafone, for the stake, has offered to pay $900 million in the money-losing Ghana Telecom, but the opposition condemns that the shares are grossly undervalued.
The workers of Ghana Telecom, in a seperate march, support the deal, as Vodafone’s coming on board will revitalise the Ghanian telco.
Sotelma plans to sell a 51% stake (Mali)
- August 1st, 2008
- 11:05 am
Sotelma, Mali’s telecom operator, plans to sell a 51% stake to a strategic investor.
Lassana Ndiaye, Sotelma’s CEO, announced that 10% and 19% stakes to be reserved for employees and institutional investors, including the public, respectively and the remaining 20% are to be retained by the state.
The privatisation process will take off in October, and the sale is expected to raise funds to help Malitel, the wireless subsidiary of Sotelma, to expand its network infrastructure. The government has planned to award a third mobile phone license after the privatisation of the state-owned fixed-line incumbent.
