Bangladesh's third-largest mobile operator Banglalink is fully ready to launch an initial public offering (IPO), but currently adopts a "wait-and-see" approach due mostly to current market conditions.
"The situation is not favourable right now," said Taimur Rahman, chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer of Banglalink.
He cited the upcoming national election, political instability and the weaker-than-expected performance of other telecom companies in the stock market as reasons for Banglalink's cautious stance.
Despite these challenges, Rahman in an interview with the FE expressed optimism about the company's prospects for an IPO in early 2024.
In early 2022, Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd announced its intention to raise funds through an IPO by offloading 10 per cent of its paid-up capital.
The company is estimated to raise over Tk 8 billion through the fixed-price offering. With a paid-up capital of around Tk 84 billion, Taimur Rahman said Banglalink would be one of the highest paid-up capital in the stock market once floated.
He said the operator has been a catalyst for making telecom services affordable for the common people.
According to Rahman, the company has been consistently performing well, and the recent results indicate a strong foundation for future sustainable performance.
"With a double-digit revenue growth and an exceptional digital services offering in the market, Banglalink is now serving more than 42.85 million customers nationwide."
Banglalink is fully owned by Malta's Telecom Ventures Ltd (previously Orascom Telecom Ventures Ltd), a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Global Telecom Holding, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of the Dutch holding company VEON.
Regarding digital banking services, Mr Rahman said Banglalink is very keen to engage in partnership with the digital banks of those who secured licences as their application was not considered for a permit.
He believes mobile operators should be partners in mobile financial services and digital banks.
"It will be a win-win situation for anyone who partners with us," he said.
Veon Ltd applied for a digital banking licence application to the central bank together with Banglalink.
Taimur Rahman expressed his frustration over the non-implementation of significant market player (SMP) restrictions, infrastructure sharing by all operators, delays in unified licence etc.
He said only three of 20 SMP rules have been implemented so far.
"These three rules were not very effective to contain unrestrained expansion of Grameen Phone which was declared SMP by BTRC," he said.
He also said the largest operator is not cooperative about infrastructure sharing and the regulator is also failing to make the operator comply with infrastructure sharing.
He talked about national roaming through infrastructure sharing by Banglalink and Teletalk, which will make both operators capable of sharing their network.
They recently launched a field trial of national roaming.
Through this field trial, both operators will be testing the seamless switching of alternative networks in areas with coverage gaps in various regions across the country.
"It is a great initiative and other operators also should follow the trend to make our telecom infrastructure greater," he said.
Mr Rahman said that they didn't increase the data price much as the rate of inflation was rising.
He said the use of data has decreased by around 20 per cent of Banglalink following the implementation of reshuffled data packages of mobile phones.
Taimur Rahman said marketing SIM-locked handsets has become a failure as the rules set by BTRC are not feasible for the operators.
In July, The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) sent a letter containing instructions to the MNOs to get prepared and bring the handsets to market.
"Banglalink tried but it didn't work out neither for us nor for the handset manufacturers," he said.
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