Altimo Says Aisa to Remain the Mobile Investment Hotspot Until 2010

The third Altimo Index, which evaluates the investment opportunities represented by 80 international mobile telecoms markets has been published and concludes that Asia will remain the mobile investment hotspot until 2010, while emerging markets are a Credit Crunch cushion, with China, India and Russia fuelling growth.

The Index is published by the Altimo Foundation.

The third Altimo Index highlights the following trends within the global mobile communications market:

• Eastern and South Eastern Asian mobile markets remain most favourable for investors due to continued rapid user growth and mobile spending driven by strong macroeconomic performance. As with the first two indices, the third Index explicitly demonstrates this as a continuing theme. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam occupy three of four top areas for investment in Asia.
• Growth in Southern Asia looks set to continue to 2010, with India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh occupying top ten positions. However, the total rating of Southern Asia is flattening due to high competition in the Indian market.
• The CIS region remains an attractive target for mobile investments in the medium-term. Despite the regionÃ's largest markets (Russia and Ukraine) approaching saturation and intensifying competition, operators are expected to increasingly profit from the growth in value-added services.
• Most developed economies in North America and Europe are reliant on new mobile products to grow since their markets have saturated with penetration above 90%.
• The investment outlook for most African mobile markets is poor to medium in the short-term, due to weak commercial and political stability. However, oil exporting countries as well as those with strong economic growth such as Algeria, Mozambique, Egypt and Angola show impressive growth in output and private spending, thus increasing penetration, revenues and profit margins of mobile operators.
• At the end of 2007, the worldÃ's mobile industry has reached 50% penetration level, which means that over 3.3 billion people now own a mobile phone.

Kirill Babaev, Altimo Foundation CEO, concluded "The Altimo Index clearly outlines that the current slowdown in the US and other highly developed countries is cushioned by robust growth in emerging economies. AltimoÃ's focus on these markets has enabled it to double its assetsÃ' value to $30 billion last year, and as this Altimo Index shows, there are still plenty of opportunities within less developed mobile markets in the near future."

Posted to the site on 21st April 2008