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Technology Stocks : Africa - The Wireless Frontier -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (101)	12/13/2007 2:11:11 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 180

Qtel, which operates in 16 markets, is looking to buy in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, Marafih said, but would not name any countries. Qtel eyes Asia in major expansion DOHA: Qatar Telecom (Qtel) plans more acquisitions in Asia and Middle East after its $3.7 billion purchase of a Kuwaiti operator and is mulling sales of shares in Qatar, depositary receipts in London or bonds as funding options, its chief said. Qtel, has $5bn in outstanding bank loans after its takeover in March of National Mobile Telecommunications (Wataniya), and financing costs have dragged on profits in the past two quarters. Qtel is looking to buy Asian and Arab operators and licences and expand its fixed-wireless and corporate enterprise data businesses as it pushes out of Qatar, which is dismantling the last Arab telecoms monopoly. "We need to have the capacity to do further acquisitions," chief executive Nasser Marafih said. "The leverage we have would limit our capability to do further acquisitions and expand from where we are," he said. Qtel's debt was about 3.8 times equity at the end of the third quarter. The company's financing options include selling shares to existing investors in Qatar or more global depositary receipts in London, where it has a secondary listing, Marafih said. It could also sell bonds or use profit from new operations to pay off debt. Qtel posted a second straight quarter of declining profit in July-September as financing costs surged. Wataniya's share of profit covered less than half of Qtel's debt financing costs. "We are actually a bit highly leveraged now," Marafih said, adding he was talking to banks about financing options. "On a long-term basis, definitely we will have to look at the equity options," he said, declining to give a timeframe. Qtel, which operates in 16 markets, is looking to buy in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, Marafih said, but would not name any countries. The company bought a 25 per cent stake in Asia Mobile Holdings, a unit of Singapore's Technologies Telemedia, in January. Mobile phones would initially be the main growth driver but Qtel's long-term emphasis will be on broadband and fixed wireless because of limited penetration in the region, he said. Unlike Etisalat and Zain, Qtel is not interested in Africa's sub-Saharan market, which Marafih said was becoming crowded. The company is bracing for competition at home, where the government is poised to sell a mobile phone licence to one of 12 bidders including Etisalat, AT&T and Vodafone. Average monthly revenue per user in Qatar, which contributed three quarters of Qtel's profits in the third quarter, would likely decline gradually from $80-85, Marafih said. He does not expect a price war with the new operator because tariffs are already competitive. Qtel is not in talks on a new venture with Saudi Telecom, the largest publicly traded Arab telecom firm, he said, responding to newspaper reports that the operators were working on a tie-up.

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (101)	4/27/2008 8:23:20 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 180

MTN Shares Gain After Report Bharti May Make Offer (Update3) By Carli Lourens April 25 (Bloomberg) -- MTN Group Ltd., Africa's largest mobile-phone company, climbed to a record in Johannesburg trading after the Financial Times reported Bharti Airtel Ltd. may bid for the company. Bharti, India's largest mobile-phone operator, is considering a bid for the company, the newspaper said yesterday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. ``Speculation is unwarranted'' on the issue, Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal, who controls Bharti, told reporters in New Delhi today, adding Bharti is always looking at acquisitions. MTN hasn't received ``any specific proposal,'' the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement to the city's stock exchange today. ``MTN receives tentative approaches from time to time, which are always evaluated,'' it added. ``It will have to be a juicy offer,'' Bruce Main, a fund manager at Ivy Asset Management said by telephone from Johannesburg today. ``MTN's got huge potential in Nigeria and Iran is starting to look like it's going to be a big success too.'' Main manages MTN shares worth about 100 million rand ($13.1 million). MTN rose 7.53 rand, or 5.7 percent, to a record close of 140.53 rand in Johannesburg, the biggest gain since April 1. The closing price values the company, which gained 38 percent in the past year, at 262.1 billion rand. The company had 68.2 million subscribers at the end of March, up from 14.3 million three years ago as MTN ventured beyond its maturing home market in South Africa and into countries including Iran, Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana. It operates in 21 countries. ``We like emerging markets,'' Mittal said in an April 4 interview. ``We're happy to look at any opportunities around the globe, both organic and existing operators.'' MTN is a takeover target for an overseas operator because of its emerging-market assets, Richard Ferguson at Nomura Securities Co. said March 25. Millicom International Cellular SA and Orascom Telecom Holding SAE are the only other mobile companies that also have extensive operations across Africa and the Middle East, he said. Bharti surged as much as 97 rupees, or 11.5 percent, to 940 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange after saying fourth-quarter profit rose 37 percent to 18.5 billion rupees ($460 million). To contact the reporters on this story: Carli Lourens in Johannesburg at clourens@bloomberg.net