Things are not going well for Australia’s VHA, a 50/50 joint venture of Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa (which we usually know for their Three brand). The third-largest mobile operator in the country is struggling to compete with Telstra and SingTel’s Optus and has apparently started looking for buyers.
According to The Australian report, the company has sent a “preliminary information memorandum” to operator groups and sovereign wealth funds in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere to sound out interest. Among those who may be looking to grab VHA’s operations are such players as Qtel, Etisalat, South Korea’s KT, NTT Docomo and China Telecom.
However, both Hutchison and Vodafone said they’ll keep supporting the network, with latter even adding that it “remains fully committed” and that their goal is the “turnaround of the business.”
Analysts on their end are questioning how long the two partners can continue to prop up the loss-making business, especially as they will soon need to spend additional cash for new spectrum. VHA has lost AU$336 million ($354 million) in 2011 and shed 554,000 customers as “on-going network issues and customer confidentiality breaches took their toll.”
According to Wireless Intelligence, the carrier had 7 million customers by year-end 2011, behind Telstra’s 13.2 million and Optus’ 9.4 million.
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]