China Mobile Reported to Be in Talks to Buy Telenor Pakistan

China Mobile is reported to be in talks with Norway's Telenor concerning a merger of their respective Pakistani mobile networks. Although both the operators have denied any such development, sources told the local Dawn newspaper that negotiations were being held secretly at the group level. The deal is thought to involve China Mobile buying Telenor Pakistan and then merging the two networks.

According to statistics from the Mobile World analysts, the combined customer base of the two operators would be around 26 million, representing a market share of 28%.

China Mobile Communications Corp, the state-owned parent to Hong Kong listed China Mobile Ltd., entered the Pakistani market in 2007, when it paid US$460 million to buy Paktel from Millicom International. Since then, the company has invested heavily in expanding the network's coverage.

China Mobile had previously tried to buy out Warid Telecom, another smaller operator in the country, but reportedly failed to reach an agreement on the price.

China Mobile's Pakistan subsidiary, Zong is the smallest of the 5 main operators in the country, with just under 6 million customers at the end of Q1 '09. The largest operator in the country is Moblink, with just over 28 million customers. Both Telenor and Ufone have just under 20 million customers, while Warid Telecom comes in with just over 17 million.

On the web: Dawn - Mobile World

Posted to the site on 21st July 2009