Vimpelcom building a solid South East Asian Cluster – Boris Nemsic, CEO Vimpelcom.
VimpelCom will pay about $66 million for Millicom’s 78 percent stake in Millicom Lao Co. Ltd. The remaining 22% of Millicom Lao Co., Ltd. is owned by the Government of the Lao PDR.
VimpelCom’s CEO Boris Nemsic describes the deal as, “the next logical step in our international expansion strategy” and one that “fits perfectly into our strategy of building a solid Southeast Asian cluster.”
VimpelCom already has mobile operations in Vietnam and Cambodia, having launched services in both markets in July 2008. It holds a 40 percent stake in a JV established with state-owned GTEL in Vietnam. In Cambodia, it owns 90 percent of Sotelco.
Laos has a population of 6.5 million people and low mobile penetration estimated at around 23%, thus making it attractive for Vimpelcom and an obvious choice for acquisition.
Mobilkom wins Serbian mobile licence
Mobilkom Austria was awarded the third licence to operate mobile telephony services in Serbia, after submitting the sole bid, worth EUR 320 million. Boris Nemsic, CEO of Mobilkom’s parent company Telekom Austria, said that while the licence price is relatively high, the overall operating price is reasonable, adding that his company views the Serbian market as underdeveloped and possessing great potential. It aims for its Serbian business to be profitable on an operating basis within three years of the launch. The buyer of the licence is contractually obliged to be fully operational within six months of receiving the licence and cover 20 percent of the population and three major highways within 12 months. The licence includes both GSM and UMTS frequencies and is valid for ten years.Mobilkom already tried to enter the Serbian market earlier this year via the auction for operator Mobi 63, but lost out to Telenor. The company however has already researched the Serbian market and laid the groundwork for an immediate start to setting up operations. Telekom Austria expects to spend EUR 250 million by 2009 for rolling out the Serbian network, and said it sees no effect on its debt targets or dividend policy as a result of the extra investment.
Source- telecompaper Wireless Mobile Telecom
