The telecom regulator has sought certain assurances from Robi and
Airtel before it makes its recommendation to the government about their
merger, a move that is likely to delay the closing of the deal further.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission sent a joint
letter to the two mobile operators on October 13 where it outlined its
concerns about the impending merger, which will make the combined entity
the country's second largest carrier.
“We will spend some time on the merger application before we send our
recommendation to the government. We need some assurances and
documents,” said a senior official of the BTRC.
The BTRC asked for a guarantee from Robi that it would pay all the
dues including value-added tax, corporate tax and other charges payable
by Airtel to the regulator and the government.
It also wanted assurance that none of the employees of the two
companies will be forcefully retired or have their contracts terminated
after the merger.
Recently, some senior executives of Airtel wrote to the government
and the regulator expressing their concern about their job security.
The regulator also wants assurance from both the operators that customer service will not be disrupted.
Robi and Airtel have until the end of this month to provide the written assurances to the regulator.
The two operators will soon be sent another letter asking for the new
entity's roadmap, said a senior official of the BTRC's legal and
licensing division.
Earlier on September 17, the two operators jointly sought permission
from the telecom regulator to merge their operations in Bangladesh.
In a letter, the chief executive officers of Robi and Airtel said
they want to match the dominance of Grameenphone in the country's
telecommunications landscape.
“We firmly believe that integration of our mobile operations will
invigorate and transform the communication market in Bangladesh
currently dominated by a single strong service provider.”
It is imperative for competition-enhancement and long-term
sustainability of the communication market in Bangladesh so that this
dominance is matched by other competitors with sufficient resources, the
CEOs said in the letter.
As of August, Robi's customer base stood at 2.83 crore and Airtel's
around 93.92 lakh. The combined entity will have the second largest
subscriber base in Bangladesh. Grameenphone, the largest operator, has
5.5 crore subscribers. Grameenphone currently has 32 megahertz of
spectrum, while the combined spectrum of Robi and Airtel will be 39 MHz.
Robi will have 75 percent holdings in the merged entity and Airtel the rest, according to the application.
Malaysia-based Axiata has 91.59 percent shares in Robi, which will be
diluted to 70 percent after the merger. The shares of Japan's NTT
Docomo in Robi will be diluted to 5 percent from 8.41 percent now. On
September 9, Robi and Airtel made public their ongoing merger talks.
Welcoming the merger, Sunil Kanti Bose, the outgoing chairman of
BTRC, at a press conference on Wednesday said there should be a maximum
of four operators in a country like Bangladesh. “Six operators will not
sustain here. So, the other operators need to merge for their survival.”
