Bashundhara Telecommunications Ltd, a sister concern of Bashundhara Group, has sent a proposal to the Post and Telecommunications Ministry about its investment in Teletalk, the lone state-owned mobile-phone company, as "strategic investor" aiming to improve the services of the latter through innovations.
"In September last, the Basundhara Telecom proposed investment in Teletalk as a strategic partner. We have forwarded it to Teletalk for scrutinizing the proposal," said a senior ministry official on Tuesday.
Teletalk, when established in 2004, drew huge response from general population as a public-sector entity. But, over the years, it has performed poorly; leading to a poor subscribers' base.
Meanwhile, Teletalk in its latest board meeting decided to take detailed financial and technical proposal from Bashundhara as the preliminary one was not detailed, said officials at the company and the ministry.
A strategic investor is an individual person or firm making investment with the goal of gaining strategic advantages from the partnership, rather than being concerned with financial returns, and improving their company's future operations through innovation or synergy.
Earlier, following the proposal, the Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd company management formed a committee for scrutinising the offer.
The MoP&T has forwarded the investment proposal to Teletalk BD Limited for taking necessary action.
The committee summed up that since Bashundhara Telecom had not placed any technical and financial offer, it was difficult to take decision about their strategic investment proposal, said officials.
Besides, strategic investment by a private company in a public company is a "wider concept". So, this concept needs to be verified legally and then requires vetting from the higher authority of government, the committee informed the Teletalk authority.
"Since, the Board of Teletalk Bd Ltd has recently decided that it would ask for detailed financial and technical proposal from Bashundhara Telecom, so we have to wait until those formalities before getting any final decision," said another senior official at the ministry.
The FE writer tried but failed to contact Teletalk Managing Director AKM Habibur Rahman Tuesday for his comment.
Teletalk BD Limited was established in 2004 aiming to ensure telecommunications services for people of all walks of life and create fair competition in the sector for the public good. Its commercial operation started in 2005.
However, the company has so far failed to keep its better footprint on the competitive market in last 18 years.
Out of the country's total 189.67-million-strong mobile-phone-subscriber base (till October) Teletalk serves only 6.43 million-merely 3.39 per cent. Moreover, it is losing market day by day.
According to the latest financial statement of Teletalk, the company incurred a loss after tax (net loss) of Tk 2.23 billion in FY2022. Stories of irregularities, financial or otherwise, in Teletalk have hit the newspaper headlines frequently.
The company, till FY2023, had invested Tk55.78 billion for its development. Out of the amount, the government invested Tk13.16 billion from its internal resources while Tk 16.56 billion from the external resources coming as project aid.
From the Social Obligation Fund of the Ministry of Post and Telecoms, the government invested Tk3.50 billion while Teletalk invested Tk 22.56 billion from its own coffers.
Currently, Teletalk has 5,661 BTS (base transceiver station) across the country to facilitate mobile telecommunications.
Company sources have said it is implementing another two projects and three others are in the pipeline for enhancing the number of BTS to 11,061 by FY2026.
A director of Teletalk Bangladesh Limited Board said considering the population, their company needs 1,6000 BTS.
Authorised and paid-up capital amounts of Teletalk Bd Ltd are Tk 20 billion and Tk 13.11 billion respectively.
Cent-percent shares of the company are owned by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the Government of Bangladesh.
According to the Teletalk Board of Director's report, the company registered gross revenue of Tk4.99 billion from its operations during the FY2021-2022.
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