The government has announced plans to sell part of its stake in Dhiraagu, the first Maldivian telecommunications company, to both the Maldivian public and international investors.
A press release by the finance ministry today states that the company will be listed in the Maldives Stock Exchange as well as in an international stock exchange, in a dual listing, through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010.
“This will be an important landmark for the Maldives, as it will be the first time shares in a Maldivian business will be traded on an international stock exchange,” it reads.
The government has also agreed to sell seven per cent of its shares to British company Cable & Wireless in preparation for the IPO.
Dhiraagu was formed as a joint venture company between the government and Cable & Wireless in 1988, with 55 per cent share owned by the government.
The sale of seven per cent of shares will take Cable & Wireless shareholdings to 52 per cent, making it the major shareholder.
The company will pay US$40 million to acquire the stake and the government will sell a portion of its remaining 48 per cent stake in the IPO.
New policy
Speaking at a press conference today, Finance Minister Ali Hashim said the government employed international bank HSBC as a financial advisor on the share sale to provide a valuation review.
Hashim said the US$40 million will be used to improve the balance of payments.
He further said listing the company in an international stock exchange and having Cable & Wireless as the dominant partner will improve its valuation and boost investor confidence.
The finance minister said the government’s policy was to sell its shares in state-owned enterprises and Dhiraagu was chosen as it was the most successful company.
The government also plans to sell shares from the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC), he said.
The Dhiraagu board will continue to be appointed by the government and and the management team will be led by Ismail Waheed, CEO and managing director of Dhiraagu, and Ismail Rasheed, chief executive.
Waheed said the company planned to provide nation-wide broadband service as part of its efforts to improve services.
“We are aspiring to make broadband a flagship service for Dhiraagu, in the same way that our mobile network, which covers the entire population of the Maldives, is today,” he said.
Waheed said he did not anticipate that the price of services will increase as Dhiraagu operated in a competitive environment.
Denis Martin, CEO of Cable & Wireless’s Monaco & Island division, said Dhiraagu will remain “a proudly Maldivian company”.
“Our mission is to ensure Dhiraagu continues to provide the best telecommunications services to Maldivian customers and international customers,” he said. “I would like to commend the government on its decision to sell shares in the business to the public and provide Maldivians with an opportunity to invest in a dynamic and exciting business.”
Dhiraagu has invested US$155 million in developing its network and operations within the Maldives. The company employs more than 600 people, 99 per cent of whom are Maldivians.
Posts
8 comments:
Selling 7% of Dhiraagu share and making Cable & Wireless majority shareholder is a CRIME, what did they give us to make majority shareholder? It invested only 50,000 US Dollars in this company. and has been taking 45% of the total 200 million dollars Dhiraagu annual revenue. It was the hard working Maldivian sweat and blood which has made this company a truely global company, NOT because it is affiliated with Cable and Wireless. The Government is wrong to make C&W majority shareholder. Has the Goverment put a tender on the international market to find out who is interested in buying Dhiraagu shares? this is a company which has around 45-60 US Dollar as an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) Do you think it will be only Cable and Wireless who will be interested?
This is a clear example that anyone who is getting drown will attempt to grab anything he can
Lets do some mathematics and research.
Today the Average revenue per User (ARPU) of Dhiraagu is between USD 45-50. If their customer base is 300,000, then month revenue is USD 15 million. Will leave upto you guys to calculate the annual revenue.
C&W used to florish in the british colonical countries, but in how many of those countries does C&W exist today? C&W controlled 100% or majority share in those countries, but when the agreement expired those countries negotiated to reduce C&W share, when they disagreed, they were asked to leave. This is the fact.
Today by giving majority share of Dhiraagu to C&W is a slap on the face of maldivian citizens, C&W is laughing, mocking at us. Even Denis Martin from C&W said it was not a C&W intiative, but an initiative of Maldivian Government.
This clearly shows that Maldivian Govt is irresposible.
ah at last even the walls start to speak!
We were proud to say that Maldives was the major share holder of DHIRAAGU. Todays government doesnt care about the hard working staffs in DHIRAAGU. It was their hard work that led the company to what it is now.
This is not a justified decision by the government... be more practical
Not only the walls, if this SAGA continues the "Munnaaru" will also start to bark
A huge step towards the development of Maldives. And this is from a Dhiraagu staff. Proud of today's government.
Government can sell Dhiraagu shares whoever it deems fit, but the question here is privatizing national assets like this would help the government or economy?
Remember, many government across the globe has to nationalize their struggling financial institutions and other industrial companies from collapse during the recession. That means, the companies cannot run alone when they become too big, specially when there is little competition.
The Maldives is not a developed economy. The people do not earn enough money to pay all these bills. The gap between rich and poor people are huge. There is no proper tax system.
The finance minister is absolutely incapable of running this economy.
The only thing we hear is all this happened because of previous government. This may be true, and we all Maldivians know about it. We chose the new government to tackle these problems and breath new life into the economy. But, what we only hear is blame game.
Blame game only shows that you are incapable nothing else.
Atleast for now keeping Dhiraagu would help the government when there is no tax system in place to earn revenue to the government.
~soyye~
As long as this finance minister is in this post
Dhiraagu Staff, What are you proud of? Yes, you are working in a company that you should be proud of, it was the we the staff who made this company a success and a global company, not C&W. C&W does not deserver the majority share, it shud have been the other way round, we shud have bought more shares.
you must be one of those MASTER;s BOY
-Another Dhiraagu Staff-
Post a Comment