The managing director of Grameenphone, Erik Aas, yesterday visited the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) as speculation grows as to when Bangladesh's largest mobile will list on the bourse. In April, Telenor, the main shareholder in Grameenphone, expressed its desire to publicly list the company. In a statement Telenor's chief executive Fredrik Baksaas said: "Public listing will bring more Bangladeshi ownership into Grameenphone... We (finally...after 11 years!) think it is important that the people of Bangladesh and all the customers of Grameenphone can become owners of this successful company."
Telenor, the Norwegian telecom operator, owns 62 percent of Grameenphone, and Grameen Telecom Corporation 38 percent. However as yet there is no agreement between the two owners as to whether the shares in the company should be floated, and if they are, how it should be done. (I wonder when they will know and when will they agree??)
Talking to The Daily Star, DSE Chief Executive Officer Salahuddin Ahmed Khan said he told the Grameenphone managing director that the market wants big companies like Grameenphone to list on the country's stock exchanges by offloading shares to the public. (Should have been done long ago, to try to retain atleast some cash flowing out of the country, other telecom companies and leading foreign banks should also be directed to get enlisted)
Last week Telenor released its quarterly report, which showed that growth at Grameenphone had slowed slightly in the three months of 2007, due to increased competition in the Bangladesh mobile market and reductions in the cost of calls. Grameenphone added 1.4 million subscribers during the three months to March 31 but its market share declined by 2 percentage points to 61 percent, compared to the previous three months. (More competition, better for users)
The bottomline is, lots of East India Companies are operating in disguise in Bangladesh. Its high time we appreciate and acknowledge their commitment to our economy, at the same time we wake up to realize how much they are taking away from us and put a cap on that with immediate effect.
2 comments:
i m willing to know abt some rumors>> 1.gp was owned by grameen bank of dr yunus by more than 50%. recently grameen bank sold some of its share to telenor nd thus telenor got the total control of gp as now posessing 66 or 64% of the company.then they changed the logo nd other things. the selling act was done violating the agreement wth the government of bd (not selling it within certain time) while getting the starting lisence. selling was done just sm time before the noble accolade.
2.is gp still using the railway optic fibre facility ? i heard gp is using it frm the starting.
3. is it true that gp is illegally using nd interfering in airforce communication frequency?
these i heard frm various sources long or short ago. now would love to clear it up by hearing frm ne1 frm bd.
I am not sure about the 2nd issue. The 1st one, its true that Dr. Yunus' noble award had got something to do with Telenor's agressive grip with regard to GrameenPhone, Telenor's most successful venture worldwide.
About the 3rd issue, I don't know if you are aware that government had asked all the mobile companies to remove their tower bases from the three DOHS in Dhaka. May be what you speculate is true.
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