MTN buys Nigerian fixed-line phone co

LAGOS – Africa’s biggest cellular network, MTN Group, has acquired a privately-owned Nigerian fixed-line firm in a move to consolidate its market position, MTN said on Thursday.

The Johannesburg-based group did not disclose details of the takeover of fixed line operator VGC Communications, but local media have reported that the deal is worth between US$60 million and US$72 million. VGC, owned by Modern Communications Technologies Gilbraltar, a unit of Panama-registered Globe International Holdings SA, has over 20 000 private and corporate subscribers in the commercial city of Lagos, the oil hub of Port Harcourt and the capital Abuja.A company statement cited industry experts as saying the deal would enable MTN to benefit from the unified licence system introduced last year.Under the universal access regime, telecoms operators are free to offer voice, data or multimedia services once a spectrum is allocated to them.VGC is one of about 10 companies that have so far been awarded the universal licence by the regulator.”The future of communications is in ‘convergence.’ Our acquisition of VGCC therefore gives us access to the necessary infrastructure and manpower to achieve this,” Ahmad Farroukh, MTN chief executive, said in a company statement.Farroukh said MTN planned to invest to expand the company’s fixed network to other commercial centres in Nigeria.With 12 million subscribers at end-December, MTN is the dominant player in the Nigerian telecoms market, which has attracted investments of over US$10 billion in the last five years.With a population of about 140 million and a telecoms market penetration rate ranked among the lowest in the world, experts say Nigeria’s potential for further growth is enormous.- Nampa-Reuters —- China holds key financial reform meeting BEIJING – China’s cabinet kicked off a closed-door economic conference Friday which was expected to map out key reforms to improve the management of its increasingly complex financial sector.Top policymakers convening the two-day National Finance Working Conference chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao hope to draw up a blueprint which would lead to the overhaul of the financial system, the official Xinhua news agency said.Various state press said one of the key proposals would be to grant Central Huijin, an investment holding company under the central bank, more independence in the administration of China’s five trillion dollars worth of state assets.Another plan on the table is to streamline the unwieldy management of China’s various state economic policy agencies by creating a new super inter-agency in charge of the state’s financial affairs.China’s financial system today is a mixture of archaic state planning and new market mechanisms, which has made the management of the world’s fourth largest economy increasingly difficult.Some of the major challenges have been reforming China’s securities markets, its currency and monetary policy.”Many areas of the financial sector are suffering as a result of the various disagreements over which way to develop,” said Stephen Green, an analyst at Standard Chartered.Also on the cards is reform to two key state banks, including the troubled China Agricultural Bank and China Development Bank, a state policy lender, observers said.The meeting is only the third of its kind since 1997, when China’s former Premier Zhu Rongji convened the emergency meeting in response to the spiralling Asian financial crisis.At the last conference in 2002 policymakers also set in motion the reform of China’s currency as well as the decision to overhaul China’s debt laden state banks in preparation for greater foreign competition.”It is, in short, the place for big decisions about institutions, and it thus does a lot to define the following five years,” Green said.Nampa-AFPVGC, owned by Modern Communications Technologies Gilbraltar, a unit of Panama-registered Globe International Holdings SA, has over 20 000 private and corporate subscribers in the commercial city of Lagos, the oil hub of Port Harcourt and the capital Abuja.A company statement cited industry experts as saying the deal would enable MTN to benefit from the unified licence system introduced last year.Under the universal access regime, telecoms operators are free to offer voice, data or multimedia services once a spectrum is allocated to them.VGC is one of about 10 companies that have so far been awarded the universal licence by the regulator.”The future of communications is in ‘convergence.’ Our acquisition of VGCC therefore gives us access to the necessary infrastructure and manpower to achieve this,” Ahmad Farroukh, MTN chief executive, said in a company statement.Farroukh said MTN planned to invest to expand the company’s fixed network to other commercial centres in Nigeria.With 12 million subscribers at end-December, MTN is the dominant player in the Nigerian telecoms market, which has attracted investments of over US$10 billion in the last five years.With a population of about 140 million and a telecoms market penetration rate ranked among the lowest in the world, experts say Nigeria’s potential for further growth is enormous.- Nampa-Reuters —- China holds key financial reform meeting BEIJING – China’s cabinet kicked off a closed-door economic conference Friday which was expected to map out key reforms to improve the management of its increasingly complex financial sector.Top policymakers convening the two-day National Finance Working Conference chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao hope to draw up a blueprint which would lead to the overhaul of the financial system, the official Xinhua news agency said.Various state press said one of the key proposals would be to grant Central Huijin, an investment holding company under the central bank, more independence in the administration of China’s five trillion dollars worth of state assets.Another plan on the table is to streamline the unwieldy management of China’s various state economic policy agencies by creating a new super inter-agency in charge of the state’s financial affairs.China’s financial system today is a mixture of archaic state planning and new market mechanisms, which has made the management of the world’s fourth largest economy increasingly difficult.Some of the major challenges have been reforming China’s securities markets, its currency and monetary policy.”Many areas of the financial sector are suffering as a result of the various disagreements over which way to develop,” said Stephen Green, an analyst at Standard Chartered.Also on the cards is reform to two key state banks, including the troubled China Agricultural Bank and China Development Bank, a state policy lender, observers said.The meeting is only the third of its kind since 1997, when China’s former Premier Zhu Rongji convened the emergency meeting in response to the spiralling Asian financial crisis.At the last conference in 2002 policymakers also set in motion the reform of China’s currency as well as the decision to overhaul China’s debt laden state banks in preparation for greater foreign competition.”It is, in short, the place for big decisions about institutions, and it thus does a lot to define the following five years,” Green said.Nampa-AFP