Economy

Spice Nepal (Mero Mobile) Taken over by TeliaSonera !

Published by Octron on September 24, 2008

After so many rumours regarding talks about take over of Mero Mobile by Vodafone, DT, Alca Tel, etc finally leading Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera AB has acquired a 80 percent stake in Spice Nepal, the country’s second largest mobile phone operator with around 1.6 million subscribers.

A press statement issued by TeliaSonera said that it would buy a 51 percent stake in TeliaSonera Asia Holding BV from Kazakhstan’s Visor Group, which has an 80 percent stake in Nepalese operator Spice Nepal and 100 percent in Cambodia’s Applifone, for around US$484 million (around Rs 34 billion).

Despite repeated attempts, the parties concerned didn’t disclose the exact amount of money that TeliaSonera has agreed to pay for Spice Nepal. However, a source refusing to be named said the amount was around 70 percent of the total deal, that is around US$ 340 million (Rs. 24 billion).

Spice Nepal already has a market share of approximately 41 percent as of August 2008 whereas Cambodia’s Applifone is a start up mobile operator with a market share of around 3 percent, he added.

According to Reuters, TeliaSonera, which has a number of successful ventures in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, expects to close the deal on October 1. “You should see this as a sign of what our priority is when we look beyond the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] markets,” Chief Executive Lars Nyberg was quoted as saying by Reuters, adding that Eurasia offered rapid growth possibilities as economies are growing fast and mobile penetration levels are low.

A separate press statement issued by Spice Nepal, popularly known as Mero Mobile in the domestic market, confirmed the deal and added that an 80

percent indirect interest in Spice Nepal has been acquired by TeliaSonera Asia Holding B.V., a newly established partnership between TeliaSonera AB and a Kazakhstan-based investment and advisory firm, Visor Group.

Spice Nepal launched its operations in September 2005 and its net sales in 2007 and in the first six months of 2008 were US$ 41.1 million and US$ 34.1 million respectively. Mobile penetration in Nepal is approximately 13 percent.

Source: Kantipur Daily

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