Japan's NTT DoCoMo bids for AKTEL stake

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading mobile phone company, has submitted a bid to buy the 30 percent of AKTEL owned by A K Khan and Company, a stake previously valued at over $300million.
"It is true that we have tendered a bid for the AKTEL stake," an official of NTT DoCoMo told The Daily Star in a written reply to questions.
The Japanese company, with a 52 million subscription base, is Asia's largest mobile operator based on revenue.
NTT DoCoMo's move heightens speculation over the future of the country's third largest mobile operator that was recently overtaken by rival Banglalink in terms of subscriber numbers.
In January another of the world's major mobile operators, the UK's Vodafone publicly expressed an interest to buy the AKTEL stake, while Middle East based operator Etisalat has also shown some interest.
However industry sources said Vodafone was concerned about how it would manage the relationship with Telekom Malaysia, the group that owns the remaining 70 percent of AKTEL.
Last week Major General (rtd) Manzurul Alam, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said officials from BTRC had recently met Gavin Darby, Vodafone's chief executive officer for America, Africa, China and India, and that Vodafone's enthusiasm for the purchase appeared to have waned.
Talking to the Daily Star, an AKTEL official said, "We are still in the dark about our new partner. But something is going on. NTT DoCoMo is on the priority list."
In recent months AKTEL has been struggling to maintain its position in the extremely competitive Bangladeshi market. In December 2007, it lost its position as the country's second largest mobile phone operator to Banglalink.
AKTEL experienced a fall in its subscribers from 6.70 million in September 2007 to 6.40 million in December in the same year. However there has been some recovery with subscriber numbers reaching 7.45million in March this year.
Yusof Annuar Yaacob, chief executive officer of Telekom Malaysia International, once said his company was keen to work with Vodafone in Bangladesh and valued AKTEL “in excess of US$1 billion.”
He later said the TM had no intention to sell out its stake in AKTEL: “However, I am unable to comment on actions or decisions that are made by our other shareholders”.
The sales of shares in AKTEL and state-run TeleTalk have become a much-talked-about issue in the mobile industry in Bangladesh. Except the leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone, all other operators are facing losses.
The top officials of leading mobile phone operators already anticipated that merger or acquisition must happen in the six-operator market.
Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), owning company of Banglalink, during his visit to Dhaka on Tuesday said merger or acquisition might happen. "I believe six is a crowd," he said.
Grameenphone is the market leader in mobile telecommunication sector with around 17.8 million subscribers, while Orascom Telecom Bangladesh, which operates Banglalink, is second with around 8.3 million subscribers.
Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh, which operates AKTEL, and Warid Telecom International are the third and fourth market players with around 7.4 million and around 2.7 million subscribers respectively.
The number of total mobile phone subscribers reached 39 million as of March 2008.
hasan@thedailystar.net