Wateen has decided to go for Initial Public Offering (IPO) within next eight to ten weeks, revealed Tariq Malik, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wateen Telecom, while addressing the employees of the organization.
The meeting was shown live on the next generation network already installed by Wateen’s team across the country. “Wateen is here to stay and we are going for expansion or further strengthen our financial health by swapping high-priced commercial loans with the finance acquired through IPO. This would improve the balance sheet of the company,” said the Wateen chief.
He also rubbished different rumors that the company had prepared lists for retrenchments or that the company was about to go bankrupt. Neither is going to happen, he said, adding that the employees would be paid bonuses.
Mr Malik said that different strategic investors from middle east are interested to invest in Wateen.
Putting to rest all speculations that the company was facing economic difficulties and could go bankrupt, the Wateen CEO said tough time for the company was over and now it was going to set again new enviable standards of performance and service in the telecom sector. He directed the staff members to address the subscribers’ complaints as efficiently as possible.
How can a company with more than Rs 16 billion annual revenues and Rs 915 million post-tax profit be facing bankruptcy, he asked.
He said the company had emerged as the second largest wireless broad band internet service provider after PTCL, which in itself was a greater achievement is a short span of time. He believed Wateen would transcend all its competitors pretty soon.
About the expansion plans of the company, the Wateen CEO said it would soon be expanding its wings to other countries and homegrown solutions would be marketed to the Gulf, Europe and America. Wateen is also venturing into media and new media services and the same will be commercially launched during the current financial year.
Urging the staff members to bury their despondency to improve their working, he said the company regarded its employees as its greatest and most precious asset. He said that annual and performance bonuses would be given to employees as per tradition of the company, for which a review would be completed towards the end of December.
