Pakistan

Mobilink completes acquisition of Warid Telecom

Merger expected to create capital and operating expenditure synergies of about $500 million

Web Desk November 26, 2015

Mobilink parent company VimpelCom on Thursday confirmed Mobilink's acquisition of Warid Telecom -- Pakistan's first mobile telecommunications acquisition.

According to the statement, Mobilink will first acquire 100% of Warid’s shares in consideration for the Dhabi Group shareholders acquiring approximately 15% of Mobilink's shares.

Mobilink Chief Executive Jeffrey Hedberg will become the CEO of the combined business, which will serve 45 million customers in Pakistan, giving it a substantial lead in terms of market share.

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The board of the new company will consist of seven directors, of whom six will be nominated by VimpelCom and Global Telecom Holding (GTH) and one nominated by the Dhabi Group shareholders.

The merger is expected to create capital and operating expenditure synergies of about $500 million. The combined revenue of both companies for the year leading to September 2015 was $1.4 billion.

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“We are delighted to announce the agreement with the Dhabi Group [Warid] shareholders today to combine our businesses in Pakistan,” VimpelCom CEO Jean-Yves Charlier said. “With the addition of Warid to our already strong customer base at Mobilink, we will serve more than 45 million customers and offer a best-in-class mobile and high-speed data network – a key factor in the digital enablement of Pakistan’s economy.”

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“Creating the largest operator in Pakistan is a significant milestone for Mobilink and Warid but also for Pakistan as a whole,” Dhabi Group Chairman Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak al Nahyan said. “Both parties bring their unique strengths to this merger. Warid, with its strong post-paid base and high quality 4G/LTE network will complement Mobilink’s position in the market,” he added.

The transaction is expected to close within six months from today, subject to obtaining approvals from the relevant authorities in Pakistan.

COMMENTS (18)

Acid | 9 years ago | Reply RIP Warid! ... I never wanted u to be f**ked like that ... Well, that's what U desired.

fahad asghar | 9 years ago | Reply I think warid is best .

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akbar | 9 years ago | Reply No wayyyyyy! I loved warid network and its services, I would never want to be associated with Mobilink plzzz

ahsan | 9 years ago | Reply Mobilink is a very pathetic network with constant signal issues. I switched from mobilink to warid because of that and warid is a far superoir network in terms of signal and speed but it seems that is going to change now.

Misbah | 9 years ago | Reply Article title: Mobilink completes acquisition of Warid Telecom Article body: The transaction is expected to close within six months from today

Waqar | 9 years ago | Reply How much it'll gonna effect employee of Waird?? if it'll effect then at which level???

AJ | 9 years ago | Reply Nowadays, mobilink service is deteriorating with the passage of time.. slow 3g data and signals fluctuations have been experienced many times! 3g data is being become expensive and lesser day by day..! I think the weak mobilink network cannot bear the load of its customers

Ali Abbas | 9 years ago | Reply The lesser the competition the expensive it will get for consumers. The acquisition may only benefit the shareholders, not the consumers as Mobilink becomes 1 big giant that is hard to beat. Any further acquisitions will eliminate further competition.

Waseem Tahir | 9 years ago | Reply To all the people who are saying that Warid will loose it's quality etc etc. Warid was never a great network when it comes to prepaid services, only their postpaid services were good and majority of the users were from Karachi. So, the quality will only affect for postpaid users while the prepaid ones will get the same quality(if not better).

Shakil | 9 years ago | Reply @dee: Mergers always end up having reduced work force. all common departments will be merged to save cost IT, Infrastructure, HR, Marketing, Sales all will be merged will definitely be reduced!

Ali | 9 years ago | Reply MUNIB Shab, Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned subsidiary of Telenor Group and VimpleCom is also partially owned by Telenor Group. so in practicality, Telenor Group now has 78mn consumers/customers. Ufone, is a gone case, world class pathetic service by Ufone as well as PTCL, seems Etisalat has no interest at all in this company and should be sold to China Mobile for a healthy competition to take place.

dee | 9 years ago | Reply Just hope this does not lead to more unemployment

Arslan | 9 years ago | Reply Using Warid post-paid for almost 10 years. Hope, it's services won't get worse.

Ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply Damn it! I switched over to Warid from Mobilink due to its poor quality. Bolt from the blue for Warid customers.

babar | 9 years ago | Reply such a bad news. i am a warid user since it was launched. Mobilink network is the worst network. warid users will be suffering

Salman Khurram | 9 years ago | Reply WoW..... Warid- one place we literally built with our own hands and spent so many tireless months for... it will be seriously missed. Wish all my ex-colleagues all the best in coming days and months.

Raja Murtaza | 9 years ago | Reply Warid would lose its quality and also its customers after this.. its bad news..

MUNIB | 9 years ago | Reply The beginning of a new era in Telecom battle. Warid had 10 million subscribers, Mobilink had 35 million (PTA stats , Sep 2015) while Telenor had 33 million and after this merger Vimplecom has 45 million so its too difficult for Telenor to catch the First slot just by sales/service so it looks like there will be another merger in future. Either Telenor will do a merger with other two to beat Mobilink or Ufone and Zong will combine to get 2nd slot. Lets hope this all end for better services for the customers and employees.

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