Abu Dhabi Group (ADG) owner of Warid and Wateen Telecom has bought back its shares from Singapore’s Singtel which it had sold few years back giving them 30% stakes in Warid Telecom, a source just confirmed.
A source at company confirmed that ADG desires to consolidate its telecom operations in Pakistan for a larger and profitable entity.
Yesterday, Warid Telecom had announced to start branchless banking in association with Bank Alfalah.
Although, the amount of the deal is not confirmed yet but we will soon update our readers on the financial front.
According to the official statement of the company
With 100% ownership in Warid Telecom, Abu Dhabi Group has further reinforced its commitment to the company. This strategic decision will allow the Group to have a more focused approach as Warid enters its 8th year of operations in Pakistan.
“The Abu Dhabi Group has a diverse investment portfolio in Pakistan and is one of the leading foreign investors in the country. With this step of acquiring complete control of Warid Telecom, the Group is reaffirming its commitment to Warid and the belief that the Pakistani telecom sector is set to grow further. The Group plans to continue to improve Warid Telecom’s operation in Pakistan by introducing new technologies, services and packages.” The Abu Dhabi Group representative further added, “We will also continue with our active participation in the important educational, cultural and social initiatives in the communities we serve. We are proud of our relationship with the people of Pakistan and are committed to being a model of responsible corporate behaviour.”
Abu Dhabi Group is a large business conglomerate in the Middle East and one of the largest foreign investors in Pakistan. It has diversified business interests, offering strong financial resources and extensive management expertise that result in commercial success for several institutions. The Group’s interests in Pakistan range from Information and communication technologies (ICT), financial services, energy, hospitality & real estate, healthcare and agriculture.
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Long due news since SingTel really suffered under the new management of gora advisors. They have no direction and think consolidating all assets is the answer. Fact is they messed up because shareholders don’t know how to run the business, look how Warid is now ranked! SingTel is smart and has decided to cut losses. The one thing positive for Warid is the deal was so in SingTel’s favour thanks to weak legal advice of Adeel Bajwa who is not even qualified lawyer that it caused confusion on how 70% sharholder like ADG could suffer at the hands of a smaller shareholder. When you get confusion then each side struggles to make sense of business. Above comment is true that ADG wants to find better price but who wants to buy company with so much debt? Official statement hides the fact that financial controls under new management are now only to benefit advisors who make company suffer while they build a bigger mess while business suffers. Mubadala in UAE is bailing out ADG so they spend freely and delay the real problem of what to do when they own 100% and what new things can they offer when they need to pay singtel and then put in more money in a loss making company?
It was much needed decision and i am happy that at last sanity prevailed at the group level and they took a better decision.
ADG have paved way for another sell out at some better price. being single owner they can now go for a better deal.