Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Mobile operator ‘Robi’ will go capital market next year after settling the issues of Second Generation (2G) licence renewal and third generation (3G), a company official said on Sunday.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company Mahtabuddin Ahmed said they applied to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently praying time extension for floating the initial public offering (IPO).
“It is so tough to go capital market without clearing the issue of 2G and 3G,” Mahtab told the reporters in replying to a query at a press conference on Sunday marking publication of its second quarter financial result.
He said licence fee for 2G renewal is now the big challenge for the operator as it will has to collect money either from foreign source or local sources.
The four mobile phone operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell- will have to pay a total of BDT 75.63 billion as spectrum charges for 2G renewal. Of them, Robi need Tk 19.00 billion, according to the latest decision of the telecom ministry.
‘Robi’ that replaces the earlier brand name of ‘AKTEL in March 2010 invested almost Tk 70 billion in telecom sector till June this year, Mr Mahtab added.
AKTEL, initially a joint venture between Telekom Malaysia and the local AK Khan Group, launched services in 1997 in Bangladesh. Later, the company was renamed Axiata (Bangladesh) Ltd after Japanese NTT DoCoMo bought AK Khan’s 30 percent share in AKTEL in 2008.
BBN/SSR/AD-12Sept11-12:19 am (BST)
