Second Bangladeshi Operator Plans Stock Market Listing

Bangladeshi mobile phone network operator, AKTEL has confirmed that it still intends to list its shares on the local stock market. The company is 70% owned by Telekom Malaysia International and the 30% remaining is currently in the process of being sold by A.K. Khan to Japan's DoCoMo for around US$350 million.

"We had a roadmap to go for public by the end of the year. We are working on it," Nora Junita Dato Seri Mohd Hussaini, chief financial officer (CFO) of AKTEL, told The Daily Star newspaper.

Nora did not disclose how much money the company is planning to raise from the capital market saying that it was too soon to release that information.

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.

The country's largest operator, Grameenphone recently announced plans for a US$300 million floatation on both the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses.

On the web: The Daily Star - Mobile World

Posted to the site on 6th August 2008