|
China Mobile PTCL bid fails
By Chen Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-21 08:58
China Mobile Communications has failed to bid for a controlling stake in
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), while competing with Emirates
Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) and SingTel.
Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, minister for Pakistan Privatization and Investment, said
over the weekend that Etisalat has won the second-round bid for a 26 per cent
stake in the state-owned PTCL.
He said the transaction still needs approval from Pakistan's Privatization
Commission.
If approved, Etisalat is scheduled to finish transactions in the coming two
months.
Etisalat beat China Mobile and SingTel with a purchase price of US$2.5
billion.
The price offered by China Mobile is US$1.409 billion and SingTel US$1.167
billion.
China Mobile was not immediately available for comment.
Compared with China Mobile, Etisalat is much more confident on the Pakistan
market, said China Securities analyst Dai Chunrong.
"In other words, China Mobile is quite cautious on international purchases,"
she said.
She believed the bid failure was normal for a company that is simply testing
the water to expand overseas.
"Lack of experience in international purchasing as well as international
operations may be partly to blame for the loss," she said.
Shares in China Mobile rose 0.35 per cent to HK$28.65 in yesterday's trade.
As international purchase has already become common practice, Dai believes
China Mobile will draw up purchase plans for the years ahead.
"China Mobile, as the world's largest mobile phone carrier in terms of
subscribers, is fully capable of buying operators in countries which have a
stable political environment and sound relationship with China," said Chen
Jinqiao, director of the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the
Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
Company figures show that China Mobile recorded a net profit of 42 billion
yuan (US$5.06 billion), up 18.13 per cent from the previous year.
The company announced yesterday that it added 3.4 million subscribers in May,
up 1.6 per cent from the previous month, to 220.51 million.
"But at this stage, overseas expansions for China Mobile are likely to be
found in developing countries and neighbouring regions," Chen said.
In fact, domestic telecom carriers have already started to look for
favourable overseas purchases.
For example, the fixed-line carrier China Netcom Group in January bought a 20
per cent stake in Hong Kong's operator PCCW Ltd for US$1 billion.
In March, China Unicom secured a licence to offer a CDMA (code division
multiple access) cellular service in Macao.
|
