Robi-Airtel merger gets HC nod

After completion of the merger, the company will be named Robi and will have the second largest subscribers base in the country. The company bench of the High Court yesterday passed judgement on the merger proposal. Upon completion of the merger process, Robi Axiata Ltd, Robi's parent company, will hold 68.3% controlling stake in the combined entity while Airtel's parent company Bharti Airtel will hold 25% control. The remaining 6.7% stake will be held by the NTT Docomo of Japan, another shareholder of Robi Axiata. The management of Robi hopes that the merger will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2016 (October to December). Barrister Sayed Mahsib Hossain, counsel for Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), yesterday said the High Court heard counsels for all the parties including the counsel for the employees of Airtel before delivering the judgement. “It is incumbent upon Robi and Airtel to comply with all the directives given by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. The High Court has left the issue of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to the BTRC to decide which VRS should be followed for the employees of Robi and Airtel, he said. “The completion of the merger is subject to the fulfillment of specific conditions mandated by the High Court and completion of conditions precedent as defined in the merger agreement,” Barrister Mahsib said. Commenting on the merger approval, Robi’s Chief Corporate and People Officer Matiul Islam Nowshad said: “We are pleased to learn that the Honourable High Court has kindly approved the Scheme of Amalgamation between Robi Axiata Limited and Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. “This approval strengthens our ability to contribute to the process of realising the government’s vision of Digital Bangladesh at a much greater scale. As a customer-centric company, we are excited by the prospect of serving a larger subscriber base with vastly enhanced network capacity.” In January, the Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad and India-based Bharti Airtel Limited inked a merger deal at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Earlier, the Prime Minister's Office approved the merger proposal of mobile phone operators Robi and Airtel, paving the way for first such initiative in Bangladesh. Robi will have to pay the government Tk507 crore as spectrum fee and Tk100 crore as merger fee. As of July this year, Robi had around 26.81 million subscribers while Airtel nearly 10 million, according to the BTRC. On July 24, the Posts and Telecommunications Division sent a summary proposal to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her consent as she is also the minister of Posts, Telecommunications and IT. Apart from the merger fee, the telecom division has also fixed Tk33.8 crore for per megahertz 2G spectrum fee, a BTRC official said. An inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith finalised the merger fee and spectrum prices on July 13. At the end of last year, the two operators applied to the BTRC to merge their companies in Bangladesh.