Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire 70% stake in Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dhabi Group, in a move to expand its operations to international markets.
Under the agreement, the company will make an investment of $300m to expand the operations of Warid Telecom and will have management and board control of the company. Dhabi Group will continue as a strategic partner retaining 30% shareholding and have their nominees on the board of Warid Telecom.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel, said: “This landmark deal underlines our intent to further expand our operations to international markets where we can implant our unique business model and offer quality and affordable telecom services.”
The acquisition by the company, would be partly by purchase of existing shares held in Warid Telecom by Dhabi Group for a nominal consideration and balance by way of issue of fresh shares at par.
The company said that the new funding will be utilised for expansion of the network and introduction of products and services. As a result of the additional investment, the overall investment in the company will be in the region of $1bn.
Mr Mittal added: “Bharti is keen to work in Bangladesh and contribute to achieving the vision of Digital Bangladesh even sooner than 2021. It will be our endeavour to raise the bar in the country’s mobile services market and bring best in class service, quality network and innovative products in the area of mobile commerce, health, education, agriculture, m-entertainment to customers.”
This will be Bharti Airtel’s second operation outside of India. The company launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka in January 2009 on a 3.5G network.
