Telenor has remained in talks with Wateen for a hundred percent acquisition, we have checked with sources.
According to details, both Mobilink and Telenor remained in separate buyout talks with Wateen, however, nothing has been finalized as of yet.
Mobilink, at the time of the Warid acquisition, had brought the matter to the table but left it for discussion at a later stage.
In the last two months, however, Telenor went ahead with a formal offer and negotiated the deal with Wateen. The entire deal was negotiated in Oslo, the sources added.
Our sources in Wateen confirmed the development and said that everything has been negotiated and now Wateen is waiting for a response from Oslo on the deal.
Muhammad Aslam Hayat, Chief Corporate Affairs & Strategy Officer, Telenor Pakistan, didn’t confirm the development but said that Telenor has always explored opportunities for collaboration and diversification, some of which have materialized while others haven’t.
Our sources from Telenor, on the other hand, confirmed that Telenor has remained in talks but it isn’t yet decided on the move.
After costs incurred for the 850MHz spectrum and capital injection required for 4G network deployments, this would be another hefty addition to Oslo’s bill and it looks like this is exactly what they are thinking about before committing to more investment in Pakistan.
Our source said that while Wateen makes business sense for Telenor, given the fiber optic back-haul network that Wateen has throughout the country, the question is to keep renting the back-haul or pay once and save money in the longer-run.
The source said that growing 3G/4G needs mean that Telenor’s bandwidth demands will only increase with time and that calls for a dedicated resource to carry its data across the country and Wateen is a perfect match for that.
Not to mention, Wateen’s prime customer, i.e. Warid, is going to get offloaded to TWA (TransWorld Associates, Mobilink’s sister concern that has fiber optic network in Pakistan) after the merger. Which will mean that it is the best time for Wateen to get acquired before the transition is finally concluded.
For those who don’t know, Wateen offloaded its consumer segment or WiMAX operations to a merged firm that’s operated and managed by Qubee.
So while Wateen is waiting for a response from Telenor, which could be anything, we will update our readers with any further developments on this.
Can anyone explain how it will benefit consumers?
More Spectrum and Sister Concern Company and New Packages and Coverage too :D
dedicated fiber network for upcoming 4G will result in best…
har phone tower “FIBER” k sath connect hota ha ?
not necessarily.. instead BST’s are connected to a local HUB in different zones which are then connected to Central system through Wireless/ Fiber which then connects to national Internet gateway through Fiber due to amount of Data and speed required at lowest cost… currently companies other than PTCL and Moilink are getting Fiber services on Rental bases.. now they want to acquire the entire Fiber network by Wateen because 4G will required lot more Bandwidth and renting it would lead to inefficiency… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ceeacd7ba322cf4243e7922e95838f799b0c2a6bf6bbab0458a8446fd94c430.jpg
Dear @aamir Wasn’t Witribe purchased Wateen’s spectrum few days back.
that was just the spectrum. Customers went to Qubee, and it was just for consumer business. What Telenor will buy is the rest of the company.
How much spectrum did Wateen had and how much did Wi-tribe got out of it?
Will telenor get any spectrum from this deal? or just the fiber optic deployment?
Only fibre optic and data warehouse etc
Aamir bhai, Payoneer ka event hai coming Saturday for freelancers/professionals. Aapne news cover hi nahi ki on ProPK.
Wateen is the Sister company of Warid so i think Mobilink will have to acquire the wateen. Why Warid Business is always in loss all over the world. First Bangladesh now Pakistan. and Just bank Alfalah sahi jaraha hai
i think it will be a strategic move as telenor will be needing the bandwidth and wateen has it so it will be beneficial also warid will be off loaded to transworld as indicated so telenor 4g and 3g will take its place ultimately you will get fast browsing via telenor
Kiya matlab hua Warid kiya bura hojaye ga offload se?
This is definitely interesting. More and more telco’s are going after fiber optic deployment. Some years back Wateen used to have the largest fiber network in Pakistan. Not sure if it has been surpassed so far or not
Market consolidations. Next big move will be acquisition of ufone and ptcl by cmpak. And we all know that telenor and mobilink both belong to same parent company i.e. vimplecom.
Not exactly. Telenor has 33% shares of Vimplecom due to which it had an ‘X’ number of seats on Vimplecom’s board so Vimplecom is not exactly the parent company rather it’s Telenor. However, Telenor has announced a few months back that they have hired JPMorgan to sell their stake from Vimplecom.
per this news ptcl and ufone is going to be acquired by zong
http://www.express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1103710972&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20160826
These moves from telecoms might help spreading Fiber Broadbands to the masses ? No?
never… wateen has Corporate level Fiber Network which was being used by different companies on rental bases.. now telenor badly needs to fully utilize the capacity for its 4G roll out… FTH is of different kind and being offered in limited areas by few companies.
Yeah, thats what i am saying, because so many stakehokders start laying fiber more and more, it would be easier for land based broadband folks to take advantage
What about 49% share of Wateen in NewCo? Is it part of the deal?
Man you missed to mention CMPak(Zong), cox it’s the only major customer for Wateen. Even gain more business as compare to Warid n else.
As per my knowledge Zong recently contracted ptcl to share their Fibre Optic infrastructure. ProP also covered that news.
Merger! Allah khair karay of employee’s job(s).
telenor 4G in fsd on warid mifi unlocked amazing………
Amir dear, please do an expose’ on our circus where we pay for ringing closing bell at NASDAQ and pay for our 30 seconds of fame at the life size screen of Nasdaq Tower and Marquee. I am amazed that no one bothered to investigate. Our country is fine as-it-is, and we dont need skunks thumping their chests after silently paying from OUR tax money. I damn them all – all of them.
Details: http://business.nasdaq.com/discover/Nasdaq-at-Times-Square/bell-ceremonies
We are doing this bs every year. Who is getting their cut for such an expensive nonsense advertisement of our country? Do countries go huge through ads?
Any news on wateen telecom. Wateen doing audits.. This time with PTCL officers. News is etisalat is buying wateen..