Page 45 - SAMENA Trends - December 2023

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PTCL Chief Explains Acquisition of Telenor Pakistan

President and Group CEO, PTCL and PTML, that the sector has seen erosion of value advancements as well such as 5G, AI, IOT,
Hatem Bamatraf stressed that Pakistan’s because there are so many players oper- and improvement in infrastructure. While
telecom sector is just big enough for three ating in the space. “Relooking and consol- talking to Business Recorder, PTCL Chief
operators to create value. Bamatraf was idating the market into three players will Financial Officer Nadeem Khan said syn-
speaking to an audience during an event actually protect the value,” Bamatarf said. ergies will be the biggest drivers for profit-
in Islamabad that was held after PTCL for- He said the change in the structure of the ability for PTCL. As a group, he said that it
mally announced its acquisition of Telenor market was due since the four companies is estimating Rs45 billion EBITDA after the
Pakistan. In a notice to the Pakistan Stock have not been in a healthy position. He said Telenor acquisition immediately, which will
Exchange earlier in the day, PTCL said it he was expecting the approval of the trans- improve profitability and add to synergies.
has entered into a Share Purchase Agree- action by the regulators to be quick as well, “Call it cash flow if you don’t like EBITDA. It
ment (SPA) with the shareholders of Tele- stressing that this is actually a correction will be equal, in just over two years, to the in-
nor Pakistan (Private) Limited (TPL) for the to the market. “We don’t want to drag it for vestment of Rs108 billion,” he said. “We will
acquisition of 100% shares for Rs108 bil- months,” he said. Baratarf said that many reduce operating and capital expenditures,
lion (roughly $385 million). While respond- will benefit from this transaction “but the and we will be able to serve a much larger
ing to a query from Business Recorder at primary beneficiary would be the custom- customer base, offer much better cover-
the event in Islamabad, Bamatraf explained er”. He added this will lead to technology age and quality. Better coverage is going to
drive both the topline and EBITDA,” he earli-
er said in the program. On the issue of how
payment will be made for Telenor transac-
tions and whether the State Bank will allow
such a huge transaction in dollars, Khan
said their investors are foreigners so there
will be no issue as such, hinting that pay-
ments will be made abroad from investors
or financiers abroad. When this transaction
materializes, the consolidated company
will command a share of 37% in the cellular
mobile operators’ space (adding up market
share of Ufone and Telenor as per Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data),
which is almost equal to Jazz, the current
market leader in Pakistan.

Bangladesh's Mobile Users Reach 190.36 million

The total number of Bangladesh's mobile
phone users hit over 190 million at the
end of November this year, showed the
latest statistics of the country's telecom
regulator. According to data from the
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC), the number of
subscribers in the South Asian country
reached 190.36 million in November 2023.
Currently, Bangladesh has four mobile
companies, three of which are foreign-
backed cell phone operators. The number of
subscribers of mobile operators - Grameen
Phone, Robi Axiata, Banglalink Digital
Communications and Teletalk Bangladesh
- stood at 82.14 million, 58.38 million, 43.38 end of November, the BTRC data showed. subscribers was 180.20 million at the end
million and 6.46 million respectively at the The number of Bangladesh's mobile phone of December 2022.

45 DECEMBER 2023