Vimpelcom, the owner of Mobilink interested in Warid

Posted By Ismail Ziker on Jul 30, 2013 | 0 comments

Russian telecom giant, Vimpelcom the owner of Mobilink, has shown interest in bidding for Warid Telecom, the smallest cellular operator in Pakistan, which has been shelved for sale by Abu Dhabi Group (ADG).

Reuters reports that Vimpelcom is looking for opportunities and for that reason it has decided to off load extra burden by selling Telecel Global that has operations in Burundi and Central Africa to Neil Telecom for $ 100 million.

Although, spokesperson for Vimpelcom denied to comment on a possible bid for Warid Telecom but members of the company were present in the meetings with Abu Dhabi Group that took place in the previous week, sources confirmed.

Vimpelcom, Etisalat and China Mobile are eyeing to buy Warid Telecom, the fifth operator by number of subscribers.It is very premature to make any kind of guess at this stage, but an official of Warid Telecom hinted that whoever buys the company will run it by its own brand name. The name ‘Warid’ will cease to exist.

In case it is bought by Etisalat or China Mobile, the resulting operation will have almost equal number of subscribers as the market leader Mobilink which is a cause of irritation for Vimpelcom Group. A late entry from them in the buying process suggests that situation is alarming for them.

Following table shows a hypothetical picture of a possible Warid deal with any of the existing operators.