India’s Bharti Airtel is planning to bid for Sri Lanka’s Tigo network which has been put on sale by its parent, Millicom International Cellular, a media report said.
India’s Economic Times newspaper quoting an unnamed executive “privy to the development” said Bharti Airtel was expected to put in a bid in a “couple of weeks.”Last week Bharti Airtel deputy chief executive Sanjay Kapoor declined to confirm whether it was putting in a bid after the company which launched in Sri Lanka in January 2009 said it had notched up a million customers.
“Any opportunity across the globe which is value creating in nature, we will always be interested in,” Kapoor said, responding to a question from LBO.
Economic Times said a successful bid would allow Airtel to treble its customer base in Sri Lanka. The report said Tigo Sri Lanka was worth between 150 to 200 million US dollars.
There have been reports that Malaysia-based Axiata group which owns Sri Lanka’s mobile market leader Dialog was interested, though subsequent report in Malaysian newspapers played down the issue.
UAE’s Etisalat executives were in Sri Lanka looking at new investment opportunities, in the island, according to a senior telecom official.
VimpelCom, Russia’s second largest Mobile company, which has operations in Cambodia had also said it was interested. Tigo is selling its assets in Sri Lanka, Laos and Cambodia.
“Millicom’s Asian assets are potentially interesting for VimpelCom, because they are based in the region that VimpelCom views as the main strategic area for international expansion,” spokeswoman Ksenia Korneyeva was quoted as saying by Bloomberg newswires.
* Source http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=1859635150
India’s Economic Times newspaper quoting an unnamed executive “privy to the development” said Bharti Airtel was expected to put in a bid in a “couple of weeks.”Last week Bharti Airtel deputy chief executive Sanjay Kapoor declined to confirm whether it was putting in a bid after the company which launched in Sri Lanka in January 2009 said it had notched up a million customers.
“Any opportunity across the globe which is value creating in nature, we will always be interested in,” Kapoor said, responding to a question from LBO.
Economic Times said a successful bid would allow Airtel to treble its customer base in Sri Lanka. The report said Tigo Sri Lanka was worth between 150 to 200 million US dollars.
There have been reports that Malaysia-based Axiata group which owns Sri Lanka’s mobile market leader Dialog was interested, though subsequent report in Malaysian newspapers played down the issue.
UAE’s Etisalat executives were in Sri Lanka looking at new investment opportunities, in the island, according to a senior telecom official.
VimpelCom, Russia’s second largest Mobile company, which has operations in Cambodia had also said it was interested. Tigo is selling its assets in Sri Lanka, Laos and Cambodia.
“Millicom’s Asian assets are potentially interesting for VimpelCom, because they are based in the region that VimpelCom views as the main strategic area for international expansion,” spokeswoman Ksenia Korneyeva was quoted as saying by Bloomberg newswires.
* Source http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=1859635150
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