Bharti to buy 70% stake in Bangladesh mobile operator Warid

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DHAKA: Telecom major Bharti Airtel is close to acquiring a majority stake in the Bangladesh operations of Warid Telecom, with officials of both
companies meeting key officials to wrap up the deal, a newspaper report said on Wednesday.

The Indian company is looking at buying a 70 per cent stake in Warid and has received a favourable response from the Bangladeshi firm's promoters -- the Abu Dhabi group -- who are here to thrash out the deal.



Bharti Airtel moves to close deal with Dhaka telecom firm- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
India’s largest telecom company Bharti Airtel may get Warid Telecom for a bargain basement price of Rs 45 lakh ($100,000), but it will have to
invest $300 million in Bangladesh’s fourth-largest telecom operator to enhance its equity base.

“Bharti’s proposal includes an initial $300-million investment in Warid for creating new shares in the company. There is even a possibility of subsequent investment after that,” said an official with Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), Bangladesh’s telecom regulator.



Bharti bags Bangladesh?s Warid for bargain price of Rs 45 lakh- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
DHAKA: Bangladesh's telecom regulator has approved Indian firm Bharti Airtel's $300 million initial investment proposal to buy a 70 per cent stake
in Warid, the fourth largest mobile company in the country.

"We have approved Bharti Airtel's plan to buy the Warid stake," Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) chairman Zia Ahmed told The Daily Star newspaper.

Bharti will take over a 70 per cent stake in Warid by creating new shares, possibly at a nominal price.



Dhaka telecom regulator okays Bharti Airtel's entry- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is likely to sign an agreement with Bangadeshi firm Warid Telecom for acquiring 70 percent stake during Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina's visit to India next week.

Sources said the finer details of the deal are being worked out and both the companies would sign an MoU to this effect.

A corporate deal during Hasina's visit is planned to send a signal on strengthening bilateral investments between both the countries.

The deal could be signed on January 12 in a joint session of the three chambers -Assocham, Ficci and CII- where Hasina is expected to address, sources said.



Airtel may sign MoU with Warid during Hasina's visit- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
NEW DELHI: Telecom major Bharti Airtel has clinched a deal to buy a controlling stake (70%) in Bangladesh’s fourth-biggest mobile phone operator
Warid Telecom. The deal will be announced in New Delhi on Tuesday, people familiar with the development told ET.

It is also learnt that, India’s largest telco has got political clearance from the Bangladesh government, including the country's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who is currently on a visit to India.

The deal also makes Bharti the first Indian telco to make in-roads into Bangladesh mobile market, where several foreign players already operate. In 2004, Egypt’s Orascom bought out Bangladesh’s Sheba, a year later, Singapore’s Singtel acquired a 45% stake in Bangladesh Telecom and in 2009, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo paid $350 million to buy a minority stake (30%) in AKTEL, majority owned by Malaysia's Axiata.



Bharti acquires 70% stake in Warid Telecom- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 

NEW DELHI: Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it will acquire 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom of Bangladesh for $300 mn (about Rs Wonder decade
Upcoming technologies of 2010

1,363 crore).

Warid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group, offers mobile telecom services with a user base of over 2.9 million in Bangladesh.

This is Bharti's first international buyout after it failed to clinch multi-billion dollar deal with South Africa's MTN last year.

"This landmark deal underlines our intent to further expand our operations to international markets ... we would like to thank the Government of India and Bangladesh for their support and encouragement," Mittal said shortly after announcing the deal.

This will be Bharti Airtel's second operation outside India. The company had launched mobile services in Sri Lanka in January last year.



Airtel announces acquisition of Warid Telecom for $300 mn- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
NEW DELHI: Dhabi group, the company which has agreed to sell 70 per cent of its stake in Bangladesh's Warid Telecom to Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday
said it would not exit the venture and hoped that all approvals for the deal comes within the next 10 days.

"I don't think so (that Bharti would get to buy the remaining 30 per cent stake)... we are going to stay in the business. We are going to stay as partners", Bashir Ahmad Tahir, chief executive of Dhabi group, said.

He was replying to a query if there is a possibility of Bharti's stake going up to 100 per cent.



Dhabi group rules out exiting Warid Telecom- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it will eventually launch the Airtel brand in Bangladesh and the business plan for the roll-out is in the
works, a top company official said.

"In the next four-six weeks, we will have the business plan ready to get the board approvals to take into account major roll-out all over the country, launch of Airtel brand in Bangladesh. The board will decide the time of Airtel brand launch," Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli said.

Asked if there is a need to step up investment in Warid Telecom, he said Board would decide on the next quantum of investment and if there is a need to go beyond $300 million.



Launching Airtel brand in Bangladesh top priority: Kohli- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, on Tuesday said the acquisition of Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom was the ‘start
of its international journey of taking the company to be global player’. Bharti Airtel’s CEO Manoj Kohli told ET the Indian telco would pay $300 million for a 70% stake in Warid Telecom — which has a debt pile of $250 million — but this fund would be used to expand the Bangladeshi telco’s networks across the country. Warid, whose enterprise valuation was pegged at $378 million by Bharti, is Bangladesh’s fourth-largest operator with just under 3 million customers and the Indian operator will be using its internal accruals to fund the deal.



Bharti starts global journey with Warid buy, eyes more such deals- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
KOLKATA: Bangladesh may prove quite a challenge for Bharti as the Indian mobile service provider’s acquisition of a 70% stake in Warid Telecom will
only give it about a 5% stake in the Bangla market to start off.

With about 2.7 million subscribers, Warid ranks just ahead of CityCell (owned by Singtel and Pacific Group with two million subscribers) and state-run Teletalk which has over one million users, among Bangladesh’s existing six service providers.

The top three players are Grameenphone (majority owned by Telenor with 23 million subscribers), Orascomowned Banglalink with 12 million , and Aktel (owned by Do-CoMo and Axiata) which has over 8 million subscribers.



Bangla market may not prove easy for Bharti - Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 
No wonder the other day in the newspaper the was a quarter page advertising by Airtel welcoming Bangladesh Prime Minster to India... made me wonder they Airtel was doing that.. now i know it was for butt kissing 😉
 
NEW DELHI: After acquiring a 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bharti Airtel has appointed Chris Tobit, director of sales and operations, enterprise
business, to head the Bangladesh unit. Mr Tobit, who has been with Bharti Airtel for over a decade now, and has held several senior positions, such has heading the telco’s operations in Maharashtra & Delhi, will be the new managing director and CEO of Warid Bangladesh, an industry executive outside the telco, but having direct knowledge of the development, told ET. ET has also learnt that Milan Rao, Airtel’s current CEO, global voice business at its enterprise division, will succeed Mr Tobit.

Bharti names Tobit as Warid CEO- Telecom-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times
 

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