Bsnl Eyes Overseas Acquisition Of Telcos

[savramesh 37]

Press Trust of India / New Delhi April 12, 2009, 15:39 IST

After MTNL's foray into Nepal and Mauritius, now its bigger counterpart BSNL is eying acquisitions of telecom companies abroad to get foothold in the global market.

"We are looking at expanding our business overseas through acquisitions of telecom companies abroad," company's CMD Kuldeep Goyal told PTI.

He said the criteria of acquiring a company would depend on the due diligence undertaken by it but its strategy is going to both organic and inorganic growth to drive revenues.

Goyal said BSNL's Articles of Association empower it to go for bidding of telecom licences abroad and acquire companies if they fit into its growth parametres synergistically apart from the right valuations. BSNL along with TCIL may bid for telecom licence in Tunisia, he added.

Analysts said high competition, fall in earnings and expectations of a growing global telephony market is leading company to other geographies. As for BSNL, it is the capacity utilisation that lies unused, while the stress is to gain the first-mover advantage in newer geographies, they said.

MTNL already operates in Mauritius and Nepal. Although recently it has lost in a number of bidding process in many countries like Saudi Arabia and Kenya, it is still keen on African and the Middle East markets. A BSNL official said these two regions are target for them also.

[srk006 21]

I never knew MTNL operates in Nepal and Mauritius.

[Saurav 22]

So now After Reliance & Airtel, BSNL is trying to become Multinational.

[savramesh 37]

The Hindu

Sunday, April 19, 2009

BSNL sets up separate business unit for overseas foray

New Delhi (PTI): Moving aggresively on its overseas expansion plans, state-run BSNL has set up a separate international business division to explore telecom opportunities abroad. We have created an international business unit recently which will look at possibilities abroad-- be it acquisition of companies and bidding for licences. M K Jain, GM, International Business is heading it, a senior BSNL official told PTI.

BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal had earlier said the company would look at valuable buy-outs based on due diligence of the target company. The PSU, he said has already received in-principle board approval to enter the global market and bidding for Tunisia is one such step.

The North African Tunisian country is set to issue new licences for fixed line and basic mobile services. The licences, initially for 15 years, include national and international long-distance services. BSNL is a late entrant here but is trying to catch up with Indian telecom operators who are looking at Africa for expansion.

Last year, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications entered into negotiations with the South Africa-based telecom giant MTN to expand in the African continent, but the talks failed. Earlier this year, Tata Communications announced plans to expand its operations in Africa through acquisitions, joint ventures, and new projects, and in January increased its stake in South African fixed-line operator Neotel to 56 per cent.

BSNL's sister concern MTNL has already forayed into Nepal and Mauritius. Analysts said BSNL may be exploring the possibilities of bidding for mobile licences in Egypt, Rwanda, Malawi, Turkey and Iran. All these countries will open bids for licence auction within the next couple of months.