China Mobile seeks to tap Africa

Map of China Mobiles reach as of March 2006.

China Mobile Communications, parent of the world's largest wireless operator by market value, plans to buy more companies in Africa and Southeast Asia as growth accelerates in those regions.

Numbers from Telegeography
Issued Quarterly Wireless Operator Metrics

"We are interested in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and some other emerging markets like those in Africa," Wang Jianzhou, president of the Beijing company, said in an interview in Hainan on Sunday. He declined to identify companies or say if an acquisition was likely this year.

China Mobile Communications is looking overseas because most new customers in its home market are farmers, who typically spend less on phones than people living in cities. Singapore Telecommunications and the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International are also expanding in emerging markets, increasing competition for assets.

"Growth rates in Southeast Asia and Africa are going to be faster than those in China, which is the main attraction," Allan Ng, an analyst at Bank of China International in Hong Kong, said Monday by telephone. "The value of these markets remains to be seen, but companies are interested now because of their potential."

Ng rates shares of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone company by users, "underperform."

China Mobile Communications in February paid $284 million to buy 89 percent of Pakistan's oldest mobile-phone carrier Paktel from Millicom International Cellular.

The Chinese company failed to buy the Luxembourg-based Millicom, an operator of wireless networks in Latin America, Asia and Africa, seven months earlier, and had tried to acquire Pakistan Telecommunications, the nation's second-biggest mobile carrier, in 2005.

"It's a bad time for buyers in emerging markets because the acquisitions are very expensive," Wang said. China Mobile Communications will "remain rational" about acquisition choices, he said.

The company seeks to parlay its experience running China Mobile (Hong Kong) to other emerging markets with a low user base. China's government is also urging companies to venture abroad as the domestic market is opening wider to foreign firms as part of World Trade Organization commitments.

China Mobile shares have advanced 62 percent in the past year, the best performer on the Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific Telecommunication Services Index. The index rose 24 percent in the period.

The shares have more than tripled since Nov. 1, 2004, when Wang took over as chief executive officer from Wang Xiaochu, who now heads a rival, China Unicom.

Hutchison Telecommunications International, controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, sold its Indian unit to Vodafone Group for $11.1 billion in February, raising funds for expansion in other Asian markets. The Hong Kong company started services in Vietnam in January and Indonesia in March.

Singapore Telecom has relied on stakes in India's Bharti Airtel and Telekomunikasi Selular to boost earnings. The company said it is interested in investing in emerging markets including Vietnam.

"In terms of profitability, the prices of telephone assets in Asia and other emerging markets are expensive, but in terms of potential, the prices are cheap," Johnny Yeh, an analyst with Quam in Hong Kong, said by telephone. He rates China Mobile's shares "accumulate."

China Mobile added 14.9 million subscribers in the first quarter, or an average of 5 million a month. Monthly average revenue per customer fell to 85 yuan, or $11, in the first quarter, from 86 yuan a year earlier.

Vodafone Group, the world's largest mobile phone company, does not plan to sell its stake in China Mobile, Wang said, responding to a South China Morning Post report in January that the Newbury, England, company postponed a sale on expectations the stock price may rise further.

Wang said he has spoken to Vodafone's chief executive officer, Arun Sarin, and its chairman, John Bond, "and they have said very clearly there is no such plan," Wang said.

China Mobile's stock price is triple what Vodafone paid for its shareholding. Vodafone paid 24.72 Hong Kong dollars, or $3.16, a share to increase its China Mobile stake to 3.27 percent in June 2002, after buying 2.18 percent for $2.5 billion in October 2000.

China, the world's biggest mobile-phone market, added 6.5 million users in February for a total of 473.9 million, according to ministry figures. The nation gained 67.7 million wireless users last year, more than the population of France.

The government has yet to give a timetable for issuing licenses for high-speed, or third-generation, services, expected to spur user spending and investments in networks. China in January 2006 chose the locally developed time division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, as one of its standards for 3G, which allows video conferencing and faster downloads of songs on to handsets.

Xi Guohua, vice minister at the Ministry of Information Industry, said Sunday that China is considering two other global standards, CDMA2000 and wideband-CDMA, for 3G. The government has said it plans to offer 3G services in time for next year's Beijing Olympics, without giving a more detailed schedule.

China Mobile Communications, which is building TD-SCDMA networks in eight cities, expects commercial trials to start after construction is completed by the end of October, Wang said.

The operator has formed a branch company in seven provinces to take care of financial details and deployment of TD-SCDMA networks in eight cities, he said.