GP to offload 10% share

Dhaka, Nov 20 (bdprem.com) – Grameenphone will offload 10 percent of shares to the capital market, GP's CEO Anders Jensen said Tuesday. "Current mobile penetration is only 18 percent and there is enough room to grow in Bangladesh," Jensen said in a press briefing. "Bangladesh will have at least 50 million mobile phone users by 2009 and GP will maintain its dominance as well as keep the pre-tax margin above 35 percent." GP's financial details will be unveiled once it announces the fourth quarter results in January 2008, he said. On an initial public offering, he said GP would offload "more or less 10 percent" shares but declined to specify the deadline. "Nobody benefits from the premature announcement of IPO's deadline," he said, commenting on the telecoms regulator's recent statement mandating GP to float its shares by June 2008. "Grameenphone is working on the IPO and its date will be announced at appropriate time." Touching on some future plans, he said GP was "heavily investing" in upgrading network capacity and quality. The largest mobile operator's CEO admitted to facing "capacity challenge in the urban areas" but he blamed it on inadequate radio frequency. He said the regulator had audited all operators' spectrum and GP expects additional frequency as a result of the study. The company, he said, is vying for a third generation (3G) and WiMAX licence to solidify its leadership with both the mobile broadband technologies. "We are having good discussions with the regulator and expecting positive outcome." He said mobile broadband through 3G technology has good prospects in the urban market while WiMAX is more suitable for rural broadband. What if the government denies GP WiMAX licence as it has already denied mobile operators international gateway licences? Jansen said only the mobile operators can invest in deploying nationwide WiMAX and the government should consider "this reality". Otherwise GP will explore the options of consolidation and the company "is discussing with various entities but there is nothing to talk about it at this stage." He, however, regretted the recent regulatory penalty of Tk 168.4 crore for its involvement in illegal international call termination activities. "It has been possible as the matter has been resolved out of court," Manzurul Alam, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, had earlier told bdnews24.com. Will such extra regulatory penalties impact investor confidence? Jensen replied: "The industry requires some sense of regulatory predictability and clarity." But he admitted that the operators need to closely work with BTRC to achieve that goal. He said GP is working with the government's cyclone relief operations. "We have donated 10 million taka in cash and goods worth of 23 million taka will be provided soon." He said GP's network suffered shutdown due to nationwide power failure. The company rushed gasoline to activate the back-up generators at 2000 base stations of the cyclone affected area and restored the network. "It is still a logistical nightmare but we have been working relentlessly." Jensen said GP is actively considering to deploy solar power to energise its network at the coastal belt. "We have reinforced this focus while evaluating the bids for a second vendor in our network." Nokia Siemens and Huawei are trying to break Ericsson's 10-year dominance as GP's mobile network supplier.