DoCoMo Bidding for Stake in Bangladesi Operator
Japan's DoCoMo is reported to have offered to buy the 30% stake in Bangladesh's Aktel which is currently owned by AK Khan, a privately owned textiles-to-telecoms company - and has been valued at around US$300 million. The move may be bad news for Vodafone which has previously reported to be negotiating to enter the Bangladeshi market through an acquisition of the same stake.
"It is true that we have tendered a bid for the AKTEL stake," an official of NTT DoCoMo told The Daily Star newspaper in a written reply to questions.
The remaining 70% is owned by Telekom Malaysia which has just divested its mobile assets into a separate company, fueling speculation that it may itself be subject to a buyout or merger.
Talking to the Daily Star, an AKTEL official said, "We are still in the dark about our new partner. But something is going on. NTT DoCoMo is on the priority list."
The country already has six operators - and according to figures from the Mobile World, ended last year with just under 34.4 million mobile subscribers - which is still a population penetration level of just 22.6%. Also worth noting is that while the country has six operators, only three of them are of any significant scale, Grameenphone (15m), Banglalink (6m) and Aktel (7m). While Warid Telecom lags with 2.1 million customers, it should be noted that it only started operations early last year. The two remaining long term incumbents, Citycell and Teletalk barely add up to 2 million customers between them.
On the web: The Daily Star - Mobile World
Posted to the site on 15th May 2008