Warid sells 70% shares to Airtel India

Dhabi group has sold 70% shares of its Bangladeshi operations to Airtel India. All the formalities will be completed in next 10 days.

Bashir A Tahir, CEO Dhabi Group and Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel sealed the deal in Delhi on Tuesday. Indian group will invest $300 million in Warid Telecom for this 70 per cent stake. The Dhabi group, from whom Bharti bought the stake, has retained 30 per cent. After having failed twice to acquire South African major MTN, this will be Bharti’s first successful global buy. Though much smaller than the $23-billion MTN deal, this buy gives Bharti control over the fourth largest operator in Bangladesh with over 2.5 billion subscribers.

Warid provide services in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh with a total customer base of 2.9 million. In a question to media, Bashir A Tahir told, “We are not going to sell the remaining 30% shares and we will retain them and we are going to be in partnership with Bharti”. “We have shaken hands with each other to stay together and it is like a Hindu marriage and a long term one”, he added.
According to experts, Bharti will increase its presence in the country in the next few years and will convert it into a billion dollar investment.

It is now interesting to see how things go in Pakistan as Dhabi Group has now officially started the game and the next destination is Warid Pakistan. News is already circulating and people close to the group are talking about February as a month of announcement. Warid has already started a massive cost cutting operation whereby it is getting rid of unwanted expenditure. Telecom people say it is being done on buyer’s demand. Warid laid off dozens of employees at the end of last week when it changed the status of its employees from permanent to contractual.

The expected buyer, Telenor, has already a contract with TRG for the call center and if Warid is getting rid of this particular department then it is understandable that from agreement point of view between both the groups, it may be a part of global deal. But the truth has to be revealed yet.

Tags: Deal, Sale, Telecom, Warid