New Delhi, Dec 18 2009
Bhaskar Hazarika
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission sees no legal barrier to Bharti Airtel picking up 70 per cent in Warid Telecom.
The commission secretary, Mahboob Ahmed, in an email communication to Financial Chronicle said, “According to the provisions of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, there is no legal bar on transferring shares of the company with the prior permission from the commission.”
Bharti has reportedly made a $300 million bid for a 70 per cent stake in Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom. This is the Indian company’s second bid to buy up a foreign telecom operator, after a failed attempt for a merger deal with South Africa’s MTN. Over four months of ‘exclusive talks’ and two extensions, the proposed $24 billion Bharti-MTN deal foundered on regulatory hurdles.
The Bangladesh regulator has sought details from Warid on the proposed stake sale to Bharti. The regulator is also likely to meet Bharti and Warid officials.
“We have asked for some information and documents relating to the sale. The commission will examine these will take a decision. The commission is expecting a meeting with Warid and Bharti officials as early as possible,” Ahmed said.
The commission’s move comes after the Dhabi group, which fully owns Warid, sought approval for going ahead with the deal.
A Bharti spokesperson said on Wednesday, “We have nothing more to comment on it.”
In 2008 Japan’s NTT DoCoMo paid $350 million to pick up 30 per cent in another Bangladesh operator, AKTEL, majority owned by Axiata of Malaysia.
Warid is the fourth largest among Bangladesh’s six telecom operators with 2.79 million subscribers at the end of October, when the total mobile subscriber base in the country was 51.4 million. The largest operator is the Grameen Phone with 22.30 million subscribers, followed by Orascom Telecom (12.27 million) and Axiata (10.99 million). The other two operators are PBTL and Teletalk.
© Financial Chronicle
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