Robi-Airtel merger will complete in a month

Robi and Airtel will wrap up their entire merger process by October 23, said a senior official of Robi yesterday.

The development comes after Robi, the main player of the merged entity, on September 21 collected the Supreme Court's certified order that gave the go-ahead to the much-awaited merger between the two operators.

Robi has to complete the merger within one month of receiving the Supreme Court order, the official said.

Since October 21 is a Friday, Robi will get an additional two days.

In the merged entity, Axiata, the parent company of Robi, will hold a 68.7 percent controlling stake. Bharti Airtel will hold a 25 percent share in the company and Axiata's old partner NTT Docomo of Japan 6.3 percent.

Currently, Malaysia-based Axiata has a 91.59 percent stake in Robi and NTT Docomo 8.41 percent.

The operators will start the integration of their networks from the first week of October.  Besides, the operators will also need to amalgamate their spectrums, which is a complicated process in itself.

Airtel and Robi have 20 megahertz and 19.8 MHz of spectrums respectively in three different bands. Of Airtel's 20 MHz spectrum, 15 MHz are 2G.

Robi will have to pay Tk 33.8 crore for each megahertz of Airtel's 2G spectrum that the merged entity will use over the next four years, along with the merger fee of Tk 100 crore. This process too will be completed shortly, the Robi official said. The telecom regulator also has to complete some processes like the voluntary retirement scheme for employees.

The court has asked Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to fix and ensure the declared scheme for employees who will not continue to work for the merged entity. A BTRC official said they are now working on the issue and will finalise it in the next commission meeting, due to be held at the end of this week.

The merged entity will also have to migrate Airtel's subscriber number prefix of '016' to Robi's '018'. Airtel's '016' prefix must be retired within two years of the merger, according to the order. Airtel has already stopped their marketing activities and is now awaiting integration into Robi's channel, said a senior official of the company.

After completion the merger Robi will be the second largest operator in Bangladesh after Grameenphone, both in terms of subscribers and revenues.

As of July, Grameenphone's total active connections stood at 5.63 crore. Robi and Airtel together had 3.62 crore active connections and Banglalink 3.14 crore, according to BTRC. The country's total active connections stood at 12.89 crore. At the end of July, Grameenphone's market share was 43.66 percent, Robi and Airtel jointly had 28.05 percent, and Banglalink 24.32 percent.

Robi and Airtel opened talks on a possible merger at the end of August last year and both their parent companies signed a deal on January this year. The merger proposal got Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's approval on July 31 after which it was placed to the court.

Airtel entered Bangladesh in 2010 by acquiring a 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom. Later in 2013, it picked up the remaining 30 percent. Its licence expires in 2018.

Robi started operations in 1997 under the brand name of Aktel; in 2008 it was rebranded as Robi. The operator renewed its licence in 2011 after completing its first 15-year tenure.