05/08 03:36 =DJ 2nd UPDATE:China Mobile Hasn't Bid For S Africa's MTN Group
By Lorraine Luk Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--China Mobile Communications Corp. President Wang Jianzhou said Thursday the company is interested in the African mobile market, but it hasn't bid for South African mobile-phone company MTN Group Ltd. (MTN.JO) .
Analysts have speculated that China Mobile Communications, the state-owned parent of China Mobile Ltd. (CHL), may be interested in bidding for MTN Group as part of its overseas expansion plan.
Wang, who is also chairman of Hong Kong-listed China Mobile Ltd. (0941.HK), said the company is looking at many mobile operators in Africa, but he declined to name the targets.
His comments came after India's Bharti Airtel Ltd. and MTN said Monday they were holding exploratory talks on a possible deal.
In its only overseas acquisition, China Mobile Communications bought 100% of Pakistan telecommunications operator Paktel Ltd. last year for US$460 million and renamed it CMPak Ltd.
Dao Heng Securities Ltd. analyst Kevin Yim said the African mobile market has strong growth potential, making it an attractive market for telecom operators such as China Mobile to enter.
"But I think China Mobile's parent will be rational. It won't buy mobile assets in Africa at an extremely high price," said Yim.
In 2006, China Mobile came close to buying Luxembourg-based mobile operator Millicom International Cellular S.A. in a US$5.3 billion deal before talks broke down.
China Mobile, China's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, reported a net profit for the three months ended March 31 of 24.10 billion yuan ($3.45 billion) , up from CNY17.56 billion a year earlier.
The company's revenue for the quarter rose 20% to CNY93.02 billion from CNY77.71 a year earlier. It added 22.8 million subscribers, up from 19.7 million new users in the fourth quarter of 2007. |
