Bharti nearing Warid takeover
Thursday, 31 December 2009
FE Report
Bharti Airtel will invest US$300 million dollar in Dhabi Group owned Warid as the top Indian telecom firm moved closer to buy majority stake in Bangladesh's fourth largest mobile phone operator, officials said Wednesday.
Sunil Mittal, the chairman and the chief executive officer of Bharti, made a whirlwind one-day tour to Bangladesh and made call-ons with top government, central bank and telecoms regulatory officials.
Officials said Mittal's visit capped negotiations between Dhabi Group and India's leading mobile phone company, as the two are now on the verge of announcing a formal deal.
According to Dhabi's letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the United Arab Emirates-based group is selling Warid's 70 per cent stake to Bharti.
The highly-respected Bharti CEO met a Bangladesh Bank deputy governor in the morning and disclosed that his company would initially invest $300 million in Warid which owns nearly three million of the country's 50 million plus mobile phone subscribers.
"He asked us about foreign exchange regulations here and said that his company would bring $300 million in the country to invest in Warid," the DG said.
Mittal also met with the executive chairman of the Board of Investment S.A. Samad where he expressed his willingness to invest in other sectors in Bangladesh, a BoI official said.
He also sought BoI's help to securing tax exemptions in investing such "a huge amount in the country's mobile phone sector", he added.
He met the chairman of BTRC to discuss details of the deal. Both Warid -- whose Dhaka office Mittal visited later in the day -- and BTRC officials have kept mum on the outcome of the talks.
Warid officials also refused to comment whether their parent group and Bharti have already signed any sell-off agreement.
But experts said Mittal' arrival meant that the Indian behemoth has all but clinched the deal and is now weeks away from taking over taking over the company.
Bharti's purchase would make it the first Indian company to expand its wings across the Bangladesh border.
Bharti has earlier said it was looking at potential purchases in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region, including Bangladesh, but declined comment on whether it wanted to purchase Warid.
In 2004, Egyptian Orascom took over Sheba and Singapore's state-owned Singtel bought a 45 percent stake in Bangladesh Telecom in 2005.
Last year Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. paid 350 million dollars to buy a 30 percent stake in operator AKTEL, majority owned by Axiata of Malaysia.
There are also talks between Vietnamese state-owned mobile phone operator Viettel and Teletalk in which the South East Asian is seeking a 60 percent stake for a deal expected to cross $300 million.
Bharti Airtel will invest US$300 million dollar in Dhabi Group owned Warid as the top Indian telecom firm moved closer to buy majority stake in Bangladesh's fourth largest mobile phone operator, officials said Wednesday.
Sunil Mittal, the chairman and the chief executive officer of Bharti, made a whirlwind one-day tour to Bangladesh and made call-ons with top government, central bank and telecoms regulatory officials.
Officials said Mittal's visit capped negotiations between Dhabi Group and India's leading mobile phone company, as the two are now on the verge of announcing a formal deal.
According to Dhabi's letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the United Arab Emirates-based group is selling Warid's 70 per cent stake to Bharti.
The highly-respected Bharti CEO met a Bangladesh Bank deputy governor in the morning and disclosed that his company would initially invest $300 million in Warid which owns nearly three million of the country's 50 million plus mobile phone subscribers.
"He asked us about foreign exchange regulations here and said that his company would bring $300 million in the country to invest in Warid," the DG said.
Mittal also met with the executive chairman of the Board of Investment S.A. Samad where he expressed his willingness to invest in other sectors in Bangladesh, a BoI official said.
He also sought BoI's help to securing tax exemptions in investing such "a huge amount in the country's mobile phone sector", he added.
He met the chairman of BTRC to discuss details of the deal. Both Warid -- whose Dhaka office Mittal visited later in the day -- and BTRC officials have kept mum on the outcome of the talks.
Warid officials also refused to comment whether their parent group and Bharti have already signed any sell-off agreement.
But experts said Mittal' arrival meant that the Indian behemoth has all but clinched the deal and is now weeks away from taking over taking over the company.
Bharti's purchase would make it the first Indian company to expand its wings across the Bangladesh border.
Bharti has earlier said it was looking at potential purchases in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region, including Bangladesh, but declined comment on whether it wanted to purchase Warid.
In 2004, Egyptian Orascom took over Sheba and Singapore's state-owned Singtel bought a 45 percent stake in Bangladesh Telecom in 2005.
Last year Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. paid 350 million dollars to buy a 30 percent stake in operator AKTEL, majority owned by Axiata of Malaysia.
There are also talks between Vietnamese state-owned mobile phone operator Viettel and Teletalk in which the South East Asian is seeking a 60 percent stake for a deal expected to cross $300 million.