Bharti to rebrand Bangladesh operations
Bharti Airtel is planning to rebrand its Bangladesh operations – Warid Telecom International and also plans to launch 3G services in the country. Warid Telecom will turn into Airtel Bangladesh, structured as an offshore subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.
According to Airtel’s spokesperson, Bharti Airtel has made all necessary submissions to the statutory authorities in Bangladesh so as to rename Warid Telecom International to Airtel Bangladesh. The name change will be effective shortly. But the company cannot comment on whether the Warid name change will coincide with a brand change for the Bangladesh market.
Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Airtel and entered Bangladesh this January when it acquired 70% ownership in Warid Telecom for $300 million from UAE-based Abu Dhabi Group.
Bangladesh’s Warid purchase confirmed by Bharti Airtel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With the total investment of USD300 million, Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom operator confirmed the acquisition of 70% stake in Bangladeshi cellco Warid Telecom besides, taking over management and board control from the current sole owner, the UAE’s Dhabi Group.
Warid’s share acquisition will be partly done via the purchase of existing shares held in Warid Telecom International Limited by Dhabi Group for a nominal consideration and the balance by issuing new shares.
30% of the holding will be retained by the Dhabi Group and will continue as a strategic partner with nominees on the board.
GrameenPhone sees Bangladesh mobile users tripling
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bangladesh mobile operator GrameenPhone Ltd, majority-owned by Norway’s Telenor, expects the total number of mobile phone users in the country to triple by 2009, CEO Erik Aas told Reuters on Tuesday.
GrameenPhone, the top cell phone operator in the South Asian country, was founded in 1996 in close cooperation between Telenor and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
“I believe at least, that within three years (Bangladesh) will triple the number of subscribers to 45-50 million users, or about 30 percent penetration,” Aas said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore.
“Subscribers have doubled every year for the last five years, but I don’t estimate it to double continuously. Of course, (average revenues per users (ARPU) will also go up.”
With a mobile penetration rate of around 10 percent and a population of roughly 147 million population, Bangladesh remains one of Asia’s fastest growing cellular markets.
Asia-focused Telenor controls GrameenPhone with a 62 percent share, while Grameen Telecom, a not-for-profit company that works in close collaboration with microcredit pioneer Grameen Bank, owns the rest.
NEW COMPETITION
GrameenPhone has about 9.5 million users in Bangladesh, a 62 percent market share, but Aas says he sees that number settling to about 50-55 percent in the next year as a sixth operator enters the market.
“There’s going to be tough competition, but we also have a good advantage – we have the best network, and we have data services,” he said.
“I can still imagine keeping a very, very good market share; whether 62 percent — that remains to be seen, but we should be able to keep a very premium position.”
GrameenPhone competes with Aktel, majority owned by Telekom Malaysia’s International unit, Egyptian Orascom Telecom’s Banglalink, CityCell, a venture between Singapore Telecommunications and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom and state-run Teletalk.
Warid Telecom International (LLC) of the United Arab Emirates, is set to start its operation in Bangladesh soon.
GrameenPhone is still a private firm and Aas declined to say if there are plans afoot to take the firm public.
“You can imagine GrameenPhone being on the stock exchange in Bangladesh would have a huge impact,” he said.
“We have to see what the shareholders decide. But it’s no secret that the government would like us to do it, for many reasons — like strengthening the capital market.”
In Telenor’s second quarter, GrameenPhone was the Norwegian firm’s biggest contributor to subscriber growth, adding 2 million users. As at its second-quarter, Telenor had 96 million mobile subscribers around the world.
GrameenPhone posted about $150 million in revenues in the second quarter, Aas said, but declined to provide forecasts.
Source- http://in.today.reuters.com
