Vietnamese Operator looking for outside Investor
Vietnam’s Saigon Post and Telecommunications Corporation (Saigon Postel) is looking for investors to help develop its CDMA based mobile network subsidiary, S-Fone. The company is looking to sell 20%-30% stake to potential investors.
S-Fone is a joint venture between Saigon Postel (80%) and South Korea’s SK Telecom (20%).
According to Ho Hong Son, Saigon Postel’s general director, the scheme of changing the form of the company’s investment into a joint venture was approved by the Government. The company would buy back SK Telecom’s 20% stake in the next two years.
As per Son, during this period, Saigon Postel also planned to seek new investors and sell 20-30% of its stake to investors who are financially strong and well-managed. Vietnam law allows foreigners to buy stakes of up to 49% in privatized firms.
Saigon Postel to operate S-Fone after SK Telecom’s withdrawal (Vietnam)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Saigon Postel will operate Vietnamese mobile operator S-Fone from the middle of this year after the withdrawal of the Korean partner SK Telecom. The business cooperation contract has been changed into joint venture operation by SK Telecom and Saigon Postel.
According to managing director Ho Hong Son, SK Telecom will be a shareholder in the new JV after the proposed change and Saigon Postel will manage the network.
Before 2011, the Korean partner will only hold a minority stake in the JV and capital invested by SK Telecom will be returned by Saigon Postel.
PLDT signs up to USD500m SE Asia fibre-optic project
Filipino incumbent Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has teamed up with other regional providers in a USD500 million high-bandwidth fibre-optic submarine cable system project linking Southeast Asia with the US. The Asia America Gateway (AAG) Cable System is a cable project backed by 17 telcos including AT&T, Bharti, BT Global Network Services, CAT Telecom, ETPI, PCP Company Limited, PT Indosat, Saigon Postel Corporation, StarHub, Telekom Malaysia, TELKOM Indonesia, Telstra, the Government of Brunei Darussalam, TNZL, Viettel and VNPT. The 20,000km AAG system will connect Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR, Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast. It is expected to be lit by the fourth quarter of next year.
