Warid Telecom forced to become public company

Bangladesh operator Warid Telecom has been issued a notice from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordering it to convert into a listed company. Under Bangladesh law, any private company with a minimum paid-in capital of BDT 400 million (US$5.73 million) is required to convert into a public limited company.

“The SEC will issue show-cause notice to the companies and the further action will depend on the merit of their reply. If someone’s reply is not satisfactory then the individual cases will be referred to the enforcement department,” a SEC official was quoted as saying.

Earlier this year, India’s Bharti Airtel took a 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom, and pledged an investment of US$300 million. The remaining 30 per cent of the operator remains held by the Dhabi Group.

Rival operator, Banglalink has recently said it is considering a stock market listing, but that would be subject to the government lowering the taxes it imposes on telecom networks.

Bangladesh has six operators serving more than 60 million subscribers amongst them.