Telenor May Buy 63% of Warid Telecom

Posted in Telecom, Telenor, Warid on 11 14th, 2009 | one response

tele, warid

Telecom industry insiders reported today that Telenor is interested in buying majority (63%) of Warid Telecom. The news has not been confirmed by Telenor or Warid yet. Warid Telecom is currently owned by Abu Dhabi Group and Singapore Telecom (SingTel).

If this deal goes through, it would be a significant development for Pakistan telecom industry. On one hand this kind of chatter or rumors show that Pakistan telecom has reached second stage of maturity where consolidation and deal making has started. On the other hand it ushers a new era of competition. Giants like China Mobile (Zong) were in talks to buy Telenor at one time as well. Also at one time speculations were high of complete takeover of Warid Telecom by SingTel.

It merits mentioning here that telenor is near to launch operations in India along with Unitech under brand name Uninor and if the Telenor-Warid deal gets confirmed, Telenor will be the largest mobile network operator in Pakistan. We will keep you posted as the details of this deal emerge.