Bharti Airtel announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom from the Dhabi Group.
Under the sale agreement, the Indian company will invest US$300m in Warid Telecom and Dhabi Group will retain the remaining 30% stake.
The…
Bharti Airtel announced the acquisition of a 70% stake in Bangladesh’s Warid Telecom from the Dhabi Group.
Under the sale agreement, the Indian company will invest US$300m in Warid Telecom and Dhabi Group will retain the remaining 30% stake.
The transaction will partly be paid through the sale of existing shares and partly through the issue of new shares. The new funding will be used for the expansion of the networks and the introduction of new products and services.
Standard Chartered advised Bharti Airtel, while the Dhabi Group did not use an external adviser.
The deal has already received approval from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Dhabi Group has been looking to offload a stake in its Bangladeshi unit for some time now but had previously failed to find a suitor. However, with the collapse of Bharti’s much hyped US$24bn merger with MTN last year, the Indian firm has plenty in the coffers.
Warid, which commenced operations in the country in 2007, is Bangladesh’s fourth largest telco with 2.9 million subscribers. It offers mobile services in all the 64 districts of the country.
