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Singapore’s SingTel, which owns just under a third of Bharti Airtel, said it will support the Indian operator in its effort to acquire Zain’s African networks, excluding Morocco and Sudan.
A senior SingTel executive told Reuters that the acquisition would be financed by debt (i.e. bond issuance), and there was no need to inject money directly into Bharti Airtel. The company’s CEO International, Lim Chuan Poh, said: “There’s no compulsive decision that we need to go and spend money to maintain our stake to avoid being diluted.”
The problem, however, is why would SingTel want to do that? If they are ready to support the idea, why don’t go and grab Zain Africa directly?
In that sense, Deutsche Bank’s analyst William Bratton said: “This is one of the few African portfolios potentially available, and it is not clear how SingTel’s shareholders benefit from indirect exposure to Africa. We are increasingly puzzled by SingTel’s international strategy.”
Finally, in case you wonder (and you probably don’t), SingTel is majority owned by the Singapore government’s investment arm – Temasek Holdings.
[Via: CellularNews]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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