China Mobile Eyes Overseas Expansion Opportunities
China Mobile is looking at further possible overseas acquisitions in the future - taking advantage of the current global stock market downturn to pick up small operators on the cheap should prices fall to an acceptable level.
"(China Mobile) would like to acquire high-quality and profit-making telecommunications enterprises overseas," Lei Yu, a spokeswoman of China Mobile's Hong Kong-listed unit, told AFP. She declined to provide any timetable for the expansion.
The official China Securities Journal had reported earlier that the company was looking at some relatively smaller Asian companies as possible acquisition targets, but noted that any purchases were not imminent.
"The problem now is that prices of phone companies in emerging markets are too expensive," company President Wang Jianzhou said at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We're not in a hurry, we have patience."
Last January, China Mobile brought the Pakistan operator, Paktel from its majority owner, Millicom International Cellular for US$284 million and pledged to spend US$400 million on improving the network coverage. On 4th May 2007, Paktel was renamed to CMPak, and in May, China Mobile announced that it had upped its stake in CMPak to 100%.
On the web: AFP - China Securities Journal
Posted to the site on 29th January 2008
