Vodafone looks to sell 44% stake in mobile phone operator SFR
UK telecom operator Vodafone is considering to sell its 44% stake in mobile phone operator SFR to French communications and entertainment giant Vivendi, British newspaper The Observer reported.
The Observer said also that Vodafone would unveil soon the sale of its stake in Polish mobile phone operator Polkomtel in a GBP800m (USD1.3bn/EUR942.6m) deal. According to market experts, the divestment of the SFR shareholdings could fetch up to EUR8bn. Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said in November that the acquisition of SFR was a top priority for the company. Vodafone and Vivendi have refused to comment.
According to Reuters sources, Goldman Sachs would advise Vodafone in the auction of its Polkomtel stake. Country: , Poland, France Sector: Telecommunications Target: Polkomtel SA, SFR Buyer: Vivendi SA Vendor: Vodafone Group plc Deal size in USD: 1.3bn, 10.7bn Type: Divestment Status: Auction Comment: The deal sizes are potential.
Bangladesh operator to be bought by Indian telco Bharti Airtel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bangladesh’s fourth largest mobile phone operator Warid is set to sell 70% stake in its company from its Abu Dhabi-based owners and regulators to one of the India’s leading telco Bharti Airtel. An approval
from the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission for the sale has been sought by the Dhabi Group, which fully owns Warid.
With the latest move, Airtel becomes the largest foreign operator to make inroads into Bangladesh mobile phone market. According to BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed, Bharti initially intended to invest 300 million dollars.
Warid was launched in 2007 and had three million subscribers at the end of October. The subscription is predicted to cross 100 million marks by 2015 by the industry experts.
Last year Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc bought 30 percent stake in operator AKTEL. Earlier, in the year 2004, Egyptian Orascom took over Sheba and in 2005 Singapore based Singtel bought 45 percent stake in Bangladesh Telecom.
Japan’s KDDI, JCB link up to make mobile wallet phones
TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) – KDDI Corp and credit card operator JCB Co have agreed to tie up to make cellular phones that can be used as credit cards, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported without citing sources.
The business daily said the so-called mobile wallet service would enable subscribers to pay for purchases by simply holding the devices near sensors in stores’ cash registers.
Users will be able to make purchases of up to 20,000 yen per transaction at stores participating in JCB’s mobile wallet service, the Nihon Keizai said.
Mobile phone operators are adding new services and features to retain customers ahead of the introduction of ‘number portability’ in October where customers can continue to use the same mobile phone numbers even after they subscribe to other mobile phone companies.
Source- http://www.forbes.com
Technorati : JCB, Japan, KDDI Corp, operator
Ice Rocket : JCB, Japan, KDDI Corp, operator
