Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whose company, Grameen Telecom is a minority shareholder in Bangladesh's biggest mobile-phone network, Grameenphone said he may take legal action to force Telenor to give up control of the venture.
In a statement, he says that the two companies agreed that they would ensure that the company was locally managed within six years of being founded - but that Telenor has refused to relinquish management control. Under the agreement, which is now disputed by both parties, Telenor should have reduced its shareholding and handed over control of the company in 2002.
Yunus said "The people do not understand that Telenor runs the company and that Grameen Telecom hardly has any effective say in the company operation."
In the statement, he said that "both Telenor and Grameen Telecom seek to maintain and expand the growth and the profits in the phone company, Grameenphone. The agenda of Telenor to maximize returns for the benefit of its owners is, however, in conflict with the social and non-profit agenda of Grameen Telecom."
Yesterday, it was revealed that a sub-contractor to a supplier of construction materials to Grameenphone was using child labour - and the two companies have launched an investigation into the matter.
Yunus added, "I remain hopeful, however, that such legal action will prove unnecessary because the owners of Telenor will require the company to honor the intention it expressed in 1996 to transfer ownership and control of Grameen Phone to the poor of Bangladesh. In light of the recent alleged illegal activity, that transfer should now occur as soon as possible before further damage is inflicted on the Grameen name."
The company is however in the midst of planning a US$300 million IPO which will see the company listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges.
The country currently has six operators - and according to figures from the Mobile World, ended the first half of this year with just under 43.7 million mobile subscribers - which is still a population penetration level of 28.5%. Also worth noting is that while the country has six operators, only four of them are of any significant scale, Grameenphone (20.3m), Banglalink (9.5m) and Aktel (7.8m) and finally, Warid Telecom (3.3m). The two remaining long term incumbents, Citycell and Teletalk add up to 2.7 million customers between them.
Posted to the site on 5th September 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/33458.php