Vodafone in Talks to Expand Reach in Asia, Latin America
By Anjana Menon
New York, June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Vodafone AirTouch Plc, the world's largest mobile phone company, said it's in talks with companies to expand its reach in Latin America and Asia.
``We are in negotiations with a couple of operators, one in Latin America and another in Asia, so we'll see what happens over the next couple of months,'' said Chris Gent, chief executive of Vodafone, at a telecommunications conference organized by Deutsche Bank in New York.
Gent declined to name the companies negotiating with Vodafone. In April, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann AG for about $173 billion.
``These are mainly, primarily wireless networks have the opportunity of moving into the Internet field and that is one of the reasons we're interested in them,'' he said.
Gent said at a press conference last week that the Latin America market was his top priority for expansion. Vodafone, with about 39 million customers, operates in about 23 countries either through wholly owned companies or through stakes in mobile phone companies.
It does not have any significant presence in Latin America, or in some Asian markets such as South Korea.
Vodafone last week announced the sale of Orange Plc, the U.K.'s third largest mobile phone company, to France Telecom SA for 26.9 billion pounds ($41 billion) in cash and stock. |
