Bharti Airtel & Zain to sign Africa deal on Tuesday
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The much talked about $10.7 bn deal between Kuwait’s Zain telecom and India’s top mobile firm Bharti Airtel, which has been making the rounds of the telecom world is expected to be signed on Tuesday at the headquarters of Zain Africa.
African market was penetrated by Zain in 2005 by the acquisition of the operations of the Dutch Celtel firm for around $3.5 billion. Last week, both the companies stated that they have finalized agreement for the sale of Zain’s operations in 15 African nations. Zain’s operation in Sudan or its investment in Morocco is not included in the sale of the African assets.
$8.3 billion, raised mainly from international banks, will be paid by Bharti on signature of the deal, while the remaining $700 million will be paid a year later. Through the deal, 42 million clients in 15 African countries from Burkina Faso to
Zambia would be gained by Bharti while Zain clients will shrink to 30 million from 72 million.
Zamtel shortlists three companies for its privatization bid
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A step ahead has been taken in the privatization bid of Zambia’s telecommunications operator Zamtel. The step has been taken after the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) short listed three companies to continue the bidding with Indian state owned telco BSNL withdrawing from the bidding.
Angola’s Unitel, Libya’s LAP Green Networks and Russia’s Altimo are now the three shortlisted companies by Zamtel. BSNL withdrew after carrying out due diligence on the company.
According to ZDA privatization manager Henry Sakala, the bids will be subjected to an evaluation by the ZDA and after the evaluation they will be presented to the ZDA board, which will make a decision on which companies with which to negotiate.
The negotiation with the bidders will be done by an independent team to be appointed which will try and avoid the political problems that have bedeviled privatizations in other countries.
Zamtel to receive fibre pairs of Zesco by Zambian govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a move to make Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) more attractive to potential buyers, Zambian government might offer a number of fibre pairs to the operator which are currently controlled by state-owned power company Zesco. Seven of twelve fibre pairs that Zesco has will be transferred.
Of the remaining five, two are used by Zesco to manage its power network; one is used by South Africa-based MTN, which owns a mobile operator in Zambia, while the last two are not currently in use.
Currently, Huawei is in the process of rolling out a fibre backbone for Zamtel, but it remains incomplete and by comparison to Zesco’s existing infrastructure is significantly less expansive.
Four international telcos to bid for stake in Zambian incumbent.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Four international groups namely Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.of India, LAP Greencom Ltd of Libya together with LAP Green Networks, Angola’s Unitel, and Russia’s Vimpel Communications, bidding to buy 75% stake in Zambia Telecommunications Co. have been shortlisted.
According to Muhabi Lungu, acting director general of the ZDA, all the four shortlisted companies are serious and respected telecommunications players. In the next round of bidding on Monday, the shortlisted bidders will be given an opportunity to conduct further due diligence on Zamtel before submitting new offers.
25% stake has been retained by the government, which has reserved the right to sell this through an initial public offering on the Lusaka Stock Exchange.
Altimo of Russia joins bidding in Zamtel privatization
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a research agency, the fourth bid from Russia’s Altimo has been accepted for controlling a stake in phone company Zambia Telecommunications Co.
The bid was submitted five minutes after the deadline which was December 23. Therefore it was not added to offers from Libya’s LAP Greencom Ltd together with LAP Green Networks, Angola’s Unitel Corp. and India’s state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd that day.
The short-listed bidders have been called for conducting further due diligence on Zamtel. They will be asked to submit a binding bid for a majority equity stake. The details of the next phase of privatization and of the indicative bids will be revealed on January 11.
In September, ZDA had announced that it was selling Zamtel, which also owns mobile-phone operator Cell-Z and Internet service provider Zamtel Online.
Zambian government under pressure to release Zamtel valuation report
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Zambia’s civil society organizations have pressurized the Government to release the valuation report it commissioned to sell its majority stakes in a fixed line incumbent Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel).
According to Fackson Shamenda, former Zambia Congress of Trade Union president, there has not been much transparency in the sale of Zamtel and with the release of the information the potential concerns over the sales will be cleared.
Earlier this year the government had appointed RP Capital to evaluate the telco’s assets, after deciding to sell 75% stake in Zamtel. However they never released the report. This led to complaints saying that there has been no transparency in the process.
According to The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), eight companies including Portugal Telecom, Orascom Telecom and Vimpelcom have pre-qualified for the stake sale, and those firms are due to complete due diligence today, with bids due by midday. The ZDA will release the identity of those companies that have submitted bids for the stake and after reviewing the bids announce the shortlisted candidates on January11.
Telcos of India, Libya & Angola bid for Zamtel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Three companies from India, Libya and Angola, have submitted their bids for state-run Zambia Telecommunications Co. also known as Zamtel in its partial privatization.
The bidding period ended with the submission of these three offers in Zamtel, informed the acting director general of the Zambia Development Agency, Muhabi Lungu.
According to Lungu, LAP Green of Libya, Unitel of Angola and Bharat Sanchar Nigam of India have submitted their offers to buy up to a 75% stake in the company.
In October the list of suitors had came down to eight from the 30 firms who had earlier shown interest. Criticizing the sale, the opposition party said that Zambia should retain a larger stake in the company. The shortlisted candidates will be announced by January11.
MTN & IMI announce partnership
Millions of mobile and online content users across Africa and the Middle East will reap the benefits of a landmark tie-up between MTN and IMImobile – an India-based software and managed services provider linked to 350 content providers worldwide.
The two companies have teamed up in a bold move to address the growing demand for content in emerging markets. This strategic partnership will entail providing MTN’s 21 markets access to a repository of current and globally popular content through enhanced delivery platforms. Content categories will include music (with local and international flavour), sports, games, entertainment, news and much more.
It will also enable MTN to launch new income-generating voice and data services across its global footprint, with revenues from mobile content and services estimated at around US$150.2 billion in 2011, up from US$89,3 billion in 2006, worldwide. (more…)
MTN Partners With IMImobile in a Major Deal to Bring Mobile and Online Content to 103 Million Users
HYDERABAD, India and JOHANNESBURG – Millions of mobile and online content users across Africa and the Middle East will reap the benefits of a landmark tie-up between MTN and IMImobile – an India-based software and managed services provider linked to 350 content providers worldwide.
The two companies have teamed up in a bold move to address the growing demand for content in emerging markets. This strategic partnership will entail providing MTN’s 21 markets access to a repository of current and globally popular content through enhanced delivery platforms. Content categories will include music (with local and international flavour), sports, games, entertainment, news and much more.â€
It will also enable MTN to launch new income-generating voice and data services across its global footprint, with revenues from mobile content and services estimated at around US$150.2 billion in 2011, up from US$89,3 billion in 2006, worldwide.
One of MTN’s new content streams will be the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM) of which the mobile operator has exclusive global mobile content rights. Accordingly, MTN will leverage its IMImobile partnership to deliver exclusive 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM) content on subscribers’ handsets, including soccer match news, fixtures, match results as well as team and group profiles.
The appointment of IMImobile as a strategic managed services and hosting partner follows an extensive review of MTN’s mobile content and media services landscape across its global footprint.
MTN is now aligning its mobile content and media services strategy across its 21 markets in Africa and the Middle East to standardize and enhance its media content offerings to its subscribers.
MTN also wants to capitalize on the rapidly converging data content and voice market, with Africa, the Middle East and Latin America poised to witness the highest growth in revenue as additional mobile data services are being deployed in these regions.
Nozipho January-Bardill, MTN Group Corporate Affairs Executive, says IMImobile was selected from a group of major global telecom software and service providers because of the scalability of its technology platforms and proven managed services business model.
IMImobile’s value proposition and technology solutions will enable MTN to reduce the time-to-market for new services, boost Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and keep MTN at the forefront of innovative services.
We have found a partner in IMImobile that has the insight and expertise of the appropriate managed service business model and technology solution necessary to continue to deliver premium content and services to our customers,†said January-Bardill.
MTN has already introduced a number of exciting products and services on its portal and on www.mtnfootball.com during the FIFA Confederations Cup in June this year. This content is currently being archived to allow football fans to re-live the moment long after the games.
IMI mobile will deploy its Service Delivery Platform (SDP), including its industry leading DaVinci Content Management System (CMS). The content strategy includes tailoring content for local consumer preferences, including French and Arabic as well as exploiting MTN’s sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM) through www.mtnfootball.com.
Vishwanath Alluri, Founder and CEO of IMImobile said: This is a major commercial milestone for IMImobile as we continue to build our offering to support leading operators worldwide. To be chosen by MTN as their strategic partner ahead of a strong list of competitors is testament to our unique service which is based on industry leading technology platforms, content management expertise, a managed services and SaaS business model combined with 24/7 technical support and strict SLA compliance. We are excited by the opportunity and are looking forward to helping MTN achieve its objectives of creating substantial additional revenue streams.â€
Issued by MTN Group Corporate Affairs
ABOUT THE MTN GROUP
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: MTNâ€. As at 30 June 2009, MTN recorded 103,2 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. The MTN Group is a global sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa(TM) and has exclusive mobile content rights for Africa and the Middle East. Visit www.mtn.com and www.mtnfootball.com.
ABOUT IMImobile
IMImobile is a leading provider of converged mobile and online technology platforms and content services to mobile operators and media companies around the world. The IMImobile product portfolio includes a core service delivery platform (DaVinci SDP), mobile advertising platform (Ad-Ring(TM)), carrier grade messaging platforms and gateways, applications for data services, full track music download services and voice platforms. Customers include leading operators and media companies such as Airtel, Vodafone, Virgin Mobile, Google, Reuters and Yahoo!. IMImobile is a profitable fast growing company with operations in 40 countries and offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.imimobile.com
Note to Editors:
The 16 countries IMImobile will be deploying its full CMS across are: Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic Conakry, Liberia, Afghanistan, Syria, Cyprus and Yemen.
IMImobile will directly connect its central platform in London to the existing CMS platforms of the following 5 countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Iran and Sudan
IMImobile contacts: Eleanor Filgate or K Simon at Babel PR T. +44(0)20-7434-5550 M. +44-7500-038-458 E. imimobile@babelpr.com W. www.babelpr.com MTN Group contacts: Maphamola Lebelo MTN Group Communications Mobile: +27-83-212-9918 Email: Lebelo_m@mtn.co.za
ZDA looks for equity partner for Zamtel (Zambia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) reportedly unveils that an equity partner for the Zambian incumbent Zamtel will be chosen through an open tender process. Moreover, the announced that the tender would be open to both local and foreign companies.
The announcement was made after the governement last month announced the sale of a 75% stake in the telco in a bid to save it from collapse; the remaining 25% will be retained by the state.
The winner of the tender will receive its stake in Zamtel by January 2009, which will cost around USD200 million to capitalise the ailing operator.
