Indian telecommunication giant Bharti Airtel and Malaysia-based Axiata Group have begun talks to merge their operations in Bangladesh to create the second-largest operator in the country.
The country’s two mobile phone operators issued separate statements yesterday regarding the matter and said they had started talks, but any decision was yet to be reached.
“It’s too early to comment on this matter as the negotiations between the two companies have just started,” Ekram Kabir, vice president of Robi Axiata Limited, told Dhaka Tribune.
Shamit Shahbuddin, Airtel’s head of PR and communications, said the talks on this likely outcome was at the primary stage and nothing was finalised yet.
On Monday, Axiata President and Group Chief Executive Officer Jamaluddin Ibrahim made an official visit to Bangladesh and raised the issue of merger with Airtel at the internal meetings, said a Robi official asking not to be named.
“We were told about the matter (merger with Airtel)) during his (Axiata president) visit,” he said. Jamaluddin also met key government officials concerned with the country’s telecommunication industry.
Earlier, Indian media reported that Bharti Airtel was going to sell its Bangladesh unit.
The reports said there was speculation that Airtel wanted to exit from the Bangladesh telecom market, where it could not get desired results. But a statement issued by Airtel does not say that whether Airtel will exit from the market.
Bharti Airtel was reviving its plan to sell its Bangladesh unit for the last few years. Recently they were trying to sell its Sri Lanka unit also. The company appointed two bankers to conduct the sale, according to the Indian media report.
Etisalat, a UAE-based telecommunication service provider, and Orange, a mobile network operator in the UK, also expressed their interest to buy the telecom business of Bharti Airtel in Bangladesh.
Earlier, Bharti Airtel announced its plans to exit from four African telecom markets as well. It was in talks with Orange for the same.
The company bought a 70% stake in Warid Telecom in Bangladesh for $100,000 in January 2010, prompting the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh to raise questions about the deal price.
Bharti Airtel is the fourth largest telecom operator in Bangladesh. On the other hand, Airtel is the number telecom operator in India.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), Grameenphone — promoted by Telenor — has 53.98m mobile subscribers, Banglalink 32.4m, Robi Axiata 27.9m, Airtel Bangladesh 9m and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom 1.1m as of July 2015.
Airtel Bangladesh is present across 64 districts with a distribution network comprising of 152,000 retailers across the country. Airtel has 3G network with more than 2,000 3G sites across the country.
Airtel revenue from South Asia comprising Bangladesh and Sri Lanka dipped 11% to Rs3,886m in June 2015. The telecom operator invested Rs992m in South Asia.
