By IANS
Dhaka : Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest telecom operator, assessed at being worth $3.5 billion, is likely to list 10 percent of its shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Its new CEO, Anders Jensen, who took charge last month, has urged the country’s telecom regulator for more radio spectrum to allow the company to grow.
Jensen also stressed the need for a market consolidation. “Six or seven players are too many, this is a four to five, maybe even three operators’ market,” he said.
With 10.8 million customers at the end of 2006, Grameenphone is now serving almost 16 million clients. It is Bangladesh’s largest mobile operator with a market share of 59 percent.
“By now the mobile phone penetration (in Bangladesh) is close to 18 percent; that means that there is still 82 percent to go,” Jensen said, adding that the company needs additional spectrum to be able to grow further and to introduce new services.
Grameenphone grew out of Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus’ rural credit banking network as a way of connecting and empowering people in the countryside.
The company, that is 62 percent owned by Norway’s Telenor and 38 by Grameen Telecom, has been under pressure to list some of its shares in Dhaka and is expected to hold an initial public offering (IPO) next year.
The value of the listing has been disputed, with European analysts seeing the company worth $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion while Bangladeshi regulators have hinted that the value is much lower.
However, Jensen said he considered the company to be worth more.
“An IPO valuation of $3.5 million is in the lower parts. We believe the value is higher,” he said.