Zain imeuzwa

Ninja

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Feb 5, 2010
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Staff Writer Sapa-AFP | 30 March, 2010

Indian top mobile operator Bharti Airtel said Tuesday it had sealed a 10.7-billion-dollar deal to buy Zain's African assets, ranking it among the world's top five cellular players.

With the acquisition, the second-largest foreign takeover in Indian corporate history, Bharti will acquire Kuwait-based Zain's African mobile services operations in 15 countries including Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.

"This agreement is a landmark for the global telecom industry and a game changer for Bharti," company chairman and founder Sunil Bharti Mittal said in an emailed statement, calling Africa "the continent of hope and opportunity."

Bharti "will be transformed into a truly global telecom company with operations across 18 countries, fulfilling our vision of building a world-class multinational," the 52-year-old businessman added.

The acquisition finally realises a dream by the billionaire tycoon to gain a foothold in Africa, one of the world's least developed telephone markets, after two failed attempts to acquire South African mobile giant MTN.

"We are excited at the growth opportunities in Africa," Mittal said.
The number of people owning phones in the countries where Zain operates stands at just 32 out of every 100 compared with India's 51.

Mittal, a self-confessed business "junkie" always hungering for the next deal, is looking to expand foreign revenues amid a savage price war at home.
But analysts say Mittal, who signed the deal at Zain Africa BV's headquarters in Amsterdam, will need all his entrepreneurial chutzpah to turn around Zain's loss-making African operations.

In Nigeria, for instance, where mobile phone ownership is growing most rapidly, Zain has been losing subscribers to rivals.
Also, Mittal will be entering "not just one market but 15 markets," said Romal Shetty, telecommunications head at global consultancy KPMG's India unit.
"You can't play a single strategy for all of them," he said. "He has a lot of work ahead."

Bharti, 32 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, said in the statement it had "entered into a legally binding definitive agreement with Zain Group to acquire Zain Africa BV."

Mittal said that the company was betting that the strength of its brand "coupled with our unique business model will allow us to unlock the potential of these emerging markets."

The trick for Bharti, which pioneered low-cost telecoms in India, will be to bring down Zain's high cost base and win subscribers, say analysts --and to get subscribers to talk more using lower tariffs.

He added he was committed to "taking affordable telecom services to the remotest geographies and bridging the digital divide."
With this purchase, the second most costly foreign takeover by an Indian company since Tata Steel bought Anglo-Dutch steel producer Corus for 12.2 billion dollars in 2007, Bharti's global customer base will increase to around 179 million.
Under the agreement, Bharti will acquire most of Zain's African mobile services with a total customer base of over 42 million out of which Zain is a market leader in 10 and second in four others.

With the acquisition, which does not include Zain's networks in Morocco or Sudan, Bharti said it would be the world's fifth-largest wireless company by customers.

"We are delighted the African telecom asset that we so assiduously built is becoming part of such a committed and reputable telecom powerhouse," Zain Group chairman Asaad Al Banwan said in the statement.

Bharti launched mobile services in India in 1995, Sri Lanka in 2009 and acquired Warid in Bangladesh in January 2010.

MY TAKE

Now we the customers will enjoy the better services offered by Bharti a company with a larger market share and promising potential for success.

Vipi wakuu tunasemaje juu ya hili?
 
Wakimwaga wino...
 

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Business and finance
Bharti Airtel and Zain
Roaming abroad

India's biggest mobile-phone operator makes a move on Africa

Feb 15th 2010 | From The Economist online
AFP
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AS THE orchestra of chirrups and pings in any public place in the rich world attests, the market for mobile phones in developed countries is saturated—and even in some developing ones opportunities for growth are running short. So big mobile operators, including those from emerging economies, are looking for growth wherever it can be found. Bharti Airtel, the biggest Indian operator when measured by subscribers, said on Monday February 15th that it is hoping to expand beyond one of the world’s fastest growing markets and into another. It is in talks with Zain, a Kuwaiti telecoms company, to buy its sub-Saharan assets for $10.7 billion and bring together African and Indian mobile-phone expertise.

Bharti has tried to move into Africa before. Two previous efforts to merge with South Africa’s MTN fell through, the latest in September last year. The deal was blocked by South Africa’s government, which was unwilling to let go of a national champion. If the new deal proceeds Bharti should find a warmer welcome in the 15 countries, including Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania, where Zain provides mobile phones to some 42m customers.

Although the mobile-phone business is still booming in India, growth there is slowing. Competition, not least from operators based in the rich world, has brought the number of mobile operators in the country to 12 and a brutal price war is under way. Recent new arrivals include Norway’s Telenor and Japan’s NTTDoCoMo. Penetration rates in India are at around 50% compared with 40% in much of Africa. Bharti sees a chance to stake a claim in the fastest growing region in the world and to do so profitably.

Zain has fared badly in Africa along with other Middle Eastern operators perhaps because their home turf has been heavily regulated. Most acted as comfortable monopolists until only recently. Bharti on the other hand has a good deal of experience in wringing out profits in a poor country where competition is growing. Africa merely adds more diversity and the potential for political instability to the challenge. It helps, too, that Bharti brings expertise of running low-cost operations in markets where consumers have very low incomes. It does this by sharing infrastructure and outsourcing most operations such as IT and running networks, leaving the risk of expanding to meet the needs of subscribers to others while it concentrates on marketing and strategy. And Bharti’s size and clout should allow it to pay much less than Zain for network towers and the like in Africa.

Bharti’s ability to concentrate on its customers should yield rewards in Africa, where innovations to bring down costs to customers have already helped to boost profits of other firms. MTN, for example, pioneered dynamic tariffs that charge users to make calls according to how many other callers are using a network at a given time. And Zain’s own scheme of “borderless roaming” lets customers move between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and make calls without incurring disproportionate charges.

Africans are also in the vanguard of providing mobile money. M-PESA, a successful service available in Kenya through Safaricom, lets mobile users transfer cash using their phones. Zain has a mobile-money service, Zap, that operates in several African markets that should give Bharti useful experience and a head start if it is taken up as enthusiastically elsewhere.

Creating a transcontinental wireless operator seems to make sense. But critics of the proposed deal worry that Bharti may have over-bid for Zain’s African businesses. Bharti’s investors seem to agree: the firm’s shares fell sharply on Monday when news of discussions with Zain emerged. The growing confidence of India’s corporate bosses in the past decade has resulted in a shopping spree for foreign assets that has not always been governed by sound business logic, such as Tata’s purchase of Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. And Vivendi, the French media and telecoms giant, broke off talks in July with Zain about acquiring these assets for around the same price, citing fears about “profitability and financial discipline”. But if Bharti applies the same techniques to Africa that made it so successful in India it seems destined to bring mobile phones to ever more of the world’s poorest people
 
Tulianza na kiwanda cha Baiskeli sasa lazima Wafrika watukome kwenye mawasiliano... Call centre zooote tutazi-centralise India kama sio Calcuta basi Mumbay...
 

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Sasa itafikia wakati hata sisi wananchi tutanunuliwa wote, remember slavery and Feudalism!!! Imeshaanza mashamba ya Jatropha, migodini, machimbo ya utafiti wa mafuta na gas!!! You name all!! Poor me!
 
Inaelekea watu wengi humu hawapo aware na current issues... hivi nani kasema ZAIN ilikuwa kampuni ya waafrica?? :( mpaka kuogopa na wewe utauzwa... assume tu kuwa mmiliki na jina la kampuni limebadilishwa maybe na offer mpya zinaweza kuja... kampuni yetu ni TTCL.
 
"the continent of hope and opportunity."

Ni kweli ni land of hope and opportunity hata kina Jeetu na jamaa wa TIARAELO na wapiga dili wengine wengi wanajua!
 
Be it Zain, Bharti or AXYZ...as long as the services and costs improve..that;s what really matters!
 
"the continent of hope and opportunity."

Ni kweli ni land of hope and opportunity hata kina Jeetu na jamaa wa TIARAELO na wapiga dili wengine wengi wanajua!

Inabidi na sisi waTZ tuione nchi yetu sasa kama land of hope and opportunity.
 
biashara kama ya sheraton inaendelea,kampuni itafika miaka 50,lakini hailipi kodi kwani kila baada ya miaka mitano badala ya kuanza kulipa kodi anamuuzia mwekezaji mwingine naye anajaribu miaka mitano ikikaribia kuisha anamuuzia mwingine,viongozi bado wanapiga usingizi na kuwaza namna ya kutengeneza madili ya ufisadi basi.
 
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