AKTel's 30pc stake draws 3 int'l buyers
Naim-Ul-Karim | Saturday, 24 May 2008
Three international mobile operators have joined the race to win 30 per cent stake in AKTel, the country's third-largest mobile phone company, a senior official said Friday.
Ettihad Etisalat, a consortium headed by the UAE's Etisalat with the incorporation of six Saudi joint venture partners, joined the battle after NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile-phone company, and Vodafone, the world's leading mobile telecom group, to buy shares of AKTel.
Vodafone held talks to buy a 30 per cent stake in AKTel from its local owner-- A.K Khan and Co-- in a deal that could be worth more than US $300m.
Gavin Darby, chief executive officer of Vodafone Americas, Africa, China and India, while visiting Dhaka recently, said: "I met Mr. Khan (Salahuddin Kasem Khan) chairman of A. K. Khan and Company. Mr. Khan is considering selling his AKTel's shares. So in the short term, that is the opportunity that we are looking at in Bangladesh mobile market."
But, a senior official, requesting anonymity, said: "There has been no progress in the proposed deal with Vodafone as two other companies are also offering higher prices."
DoCoMo recently disclosed to an international agency that it was in talks to buy a stake in AKTel, Bangladesh's third-biggest wireless carrier.
DoCoMo plans to buy AK Kahn & Company's 30 percent stake in AKTel for about 40 billion yen ($389 million), an official said.
The official added Ettihad Etisalat, who won Saudi Arabia's second GSM license with a $ 3.24 billion and a 3G license for $200 million, is persuading to buy 30 per cent share in AKTel.
The official expressed his reluctance to mention how much the company offered but said the amount could be higher than other offers to buy stake of AKTel, growth of which has been stagnant due to non-development of infrastructure.
"Further development plans, for expansion of AKTel's network, will be chalked out after the fate of 30 per cent share of AK Khan is decided," the official said.
He said TM International has requested AK Khan to expedite the selling process to help the company start its network expansion work.
There is no such pressure from the end of the TM International to quicken the sales deal, AKTel chairman said, adding, "It's not true. The number of subscribers of AKTel increased in the last few months."
An official in the telecom regulatory body BTRC said it would welcome any of the negotiating foreign company's partnership with Telekom Malaysia.
"There is no bar if any shareholder intends to handover its share to any other well reputed company," said the official.
At present there are six mobile operators in Bangladesh. The market leader is Grameenphone, followed by banglalink, AKTel, Warid, Citycell and state run Teletalk. All use the GSM standard apart from CDMA based Citycell.
According to official statistics of BTRC, AKTel's number of subscribers until April last stood at 7.57 million out of the country's total 40.34 million mobile users.
Ettihad Etisalat, a consortium headed by the UAE's Etisalat with the incorporation of six Saudi joint venture partners, joined the battle after NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile-phone company, and Vodafone, the world's leading mobile telecom group, to buy shares of AKTel.
Vodafone held talks to buy a 30 per cent stake in AKTel from its local owner-- A.K Khan and Co-- in a deal that could be worth more than US $300m.
Gavin Darby, chief executive officer of Vodafone Americas, Africa, China and India, while visiting Dhaka recently, said: "I met Mr. Khan (Salahuddin Kasem Khan) chairman of A. K. Khan and Company. Mr. Khan is considering selling his AKTel's shares. So in the short term, that is the opportunity that we are looking at in Bangladesh mobile market."
But, a senior official, requesting anonymity, said: "There has been no progress in the proposed deal with Vodafone as two other companies are also offering higher prices."
DoCoMo recently disclosed to an international agency that it was in talks to buy a stake in AKTel, Bangladesh's third-biggest wireless carrier.
DoCoMo plans to buy AK Kahn & Company's 30 percent stake in AKTel for about 40 billion yen ($389 million), an official said.
The official added Ettihad Etisalat, who won Saudi Arabia's second GSM license with a $ 3.24 billion and a 3G license for $200 million, is persuading to buy 30 per cent share in AKTel.
The official expressed his reluctance to mention how much the company offered but said the amount could be higher than other offers to buy stake of AKTel, growth of which has been stagnant due to non-development of infrastructure.
"Further development plans, for expansion of AKTel's network, will be chalked out after the fate of 30 per cent share of AK Khan is decided," the official said.
He said TM International has requested AK Khan to expedite the selling process to help the company start its network expansion work.
There is no such pressure from the end of the TM International to quicken the sales deal, AKTel chairman said, adding, "It's not true. The number of subscribers of AKTel increased in the last few months."
An official in the telecom regulatory body BTRC said it would welcome any of the negotiating foreign company's partnership with Telekom Malaysia.
"There is no bar if any shareholder intends to handover its share to any other well reputed company," said the official.
At present there are six mobile operators in Bangladesh. The market leader is Grameenphone, followed by banglalink, AKTel, Warid, Citycell and state run Teletalk. All use the GSM standard apart from CDMA based Citycell.
According to official statistics of BTRC, AKTel's number of subscribers until April last stood at 7.57 million out of the country's total 40.34 million mobile users.