Airtel to buy Warid of Bangladesh

Bharti Airtel is buying out Warid, the fourth largest mobile phone service company in Bangladesh, the country’s Daily Star newspaper reported. Bharti Airtel is the largest private mobile operator in India with subscribers. It also has operations in Sri Lanka.

Airtel will buy 70% stake in Warid for approximately $900 million, the newspaper said. Airtel has also submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission for investing $300 million after the acquisition. The head of the Commission confirmed the report to the newspaper.

Warid, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi Group, has deployed the Next Generation Network in Bangladesh. Warid also has operations in several countries. Recently, India’s Essar group had bought out the Uganda and operations of Warid for over $300 million.

Airtel’s recent attempt to acquire South African telecom company MTN had failed, over regulatory hassles. Airtel had said at that time it will still keep an eye out for acquisitions. If the Warid deal goes through, this will be the biggest overseas acquisition by Airtel.

Warid, like Airtel, is a GSM operator. The company entered the Bangladesh market two years back. In 2008, Abu Dhabi Groups had said that it is looking to raise fresh capital for its expansion plans. As of September 2008, Warid has over 3.8 million subscribers in India. In contrast, Bharti Airtel has a subscriber base over 110 million. In terms of subscriber numbers, Airtel is the third-largest mobile services operator in the world. It also has an operation in Sri Lanka in alliance with Singapore Telecom.

Warid is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s Warid Telecom International.