Viettel’s Myanmar venture moving slower than expected
Viettel’s Myanmar venture is falling behind the deadline of applying for its license due to difficulties in negotiations among related parties.
The paper cited an insider source as saying that the parties have not agreed on how votes will be split between the board and executive staff.
The new joint venture’s board will be dominated by partners from Myanmar, but it is likely that Viettel side will delegate a CEO, subject to board approval, just like it has done in other countries.
Another challenging item on the agenda is financing. The source said that the three parties together had financial firepower, but that it remains a question whether they felt comfortable pooling their resources into a project that could be very challenging in a maturing market.
If a fourth nationwide license is granted, the new mobile operator will have to compete with state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and foreign firms Ooredoo and Telenor.
At the end of the first quarter of 2016, there were about 42 million mobile subscribers in Myanmar, accounting for 78% of the country’s population. MPT had a 46% market share, followed by Telenor’s 37%, and Ooredoo’s 16.5%.
In April, Viettel announced that it would invest US$1.5 billion in Myanmar to build the country’s fourth mobile network, the biggest among all of the company’s foreign markets to date.
The title formerly belonged to Tanzania where Viettel put down US$1 billion.