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TeleTalk aims to list this year, valued at Tkl300cr

Board to discuss plans to sell off 25-30 stake

Md Hasan
TeleTalk, valued at around Tk 1300 crore ($188 million) with the struggling state-owned operator, is aiming to offload up to 30 percent of it shares to the public by the end of the year.
Based on the valuation, carried out by the TeleTalk board, the company aims to raise around Tk 400 crore. The money trill be used to expand its network and boost its limited subscriber base of 1.01 million.
The TeleTalk board will meet next week to finalise the plans for its initial public offering, sources said.
"In principle we have already decided to raise the funds this year. The next board meeting will decide whether the amount to be offloaded on the capital market is 25 percent or 30 per-cent," said a high official of the company.
TeleTalk is now expected to follow the footsteps of Grameenphone, the country’s largest mobile operator, which has announced plans to list sometime between July and September. Grameenphone, withits 17.81 million subscribers, has been valued at around $3.75 billion.
Yesterday analysts were sceptical about the timing of the listing, saying TeleTalk should have come to market earlier when it was in a stronger position.
The news of the listing plans comes at a time when speculation was mounting that the government is considering to sell a pan of the company to a foreign investor.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officials said some
foreign companies including South Korean SK Telecom have shown interest to buy a stake of the state-run mobile phone operator.
However, high officials of telecommunications ministry said the government has no plan to sell TeleTalk's stake to any foreign company.
"The government's intention is to make TeleTalk a strong mobile operator in the coun try," said a high official of the ministry.
TeleTalk is the country's smallest operator in terms of subscribers with a 2 percent market share. It started operations in 2005 with high hopes, but has failed to compete with the five other multinational operators in due to its lack of quality services and poor marketing.
Until March 2008, the company was able to add only 1.01 million customers, whereas its
nearest rival Warid Telecom International had 2.79 million customers, although it entered the market in 2007.
Grameenphone is followed by Banglalink with 8.31 million subscribers and Aktel with 7.45 million.
"It's a very good news for the customers of TeleTalk and also for the country. But the listing should have been done at the moment when there were hundreds of customers standing in large queues to get connection of the company," said Abu Ahmed, professor of economics al Dhaka University.
TeleTalk's board recently approved a Tk 542 crore network expansion project. The officials of the company said the money raised from the market could be used to implement the project.
hasan@thedailystar.net