Archive for June 29th, 2007

Mobile Trends Pakistan: May 2007

Published by Babar on June 29, 2007 under Mobile Companies, Mobile Trends, Pakistan, Telecommunications

Here’s Pakistan’s mobile subscriber data as of May 2007. Total number is nearly 61 million subscribers. The chart below shows the market share for the mobile companies, data and figure courtsey of PTA. Note how Telenor has catched up with Warid. Both are tied up at this time.

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Here’s another view which shows the relative market share breakdown by Fixed telecom, cellular and wireless local loop (WLL) over the years. Interesting to see how fixed telecom has started declining. The WLL growth has been slower than expected due to a number of technical and non-technical issues. Data and figure courtsey of PTA.

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Deal: SingTel Pays $758M For 30% Of Warid Telecom

Published by Babar Bhatti on June 29, 2007 under Companies, Investment, Stocks, Telecommunications

As we all know Singapore Telecom had been working to get a slice of Warid Telecom. The deal has gone through and it is valued at US$758 million, which gives them a 30 percent stake in Pakistan’s third largest mobile phone operator, Warid Telecom. This is a great win-win deal in my opinion. As I wrote before Warid wanted to partner with a leading company to raise funds while keeping control of their business. They have succeeded in their goal. Simple back-of-the-envelope calcualtions show that SingTel paid a very decent price, unlike the Etisalat case a few years ago in which they paid over $1200 per subscriber. My hope is that Singapore Telecom will bring in some of their discipline, attention to detail and care for customers to Warid in Pakistan. We really need that, more than anything else.

Here’s the official stuff:

In a statement, SingTel said the investment was part of a strategy to support Warid Telecom’s continued growth and to enhance its market position.

Warid Telecom is part of the Abu Dhabi Group.

According to earlier media reports, the Abu Dhabi Group will still hold the remaining 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom.

Pakistan’s telecom sector has attracted US$9 billion in foreign investment in the last three years.