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China Mobile president seeks assets in Southeast Asia, Africa

(Bloomberg)
Updated: 2007-04-23 09:55

China Mobile Communications Corp., parent of the world's largest wireless operator by market value, plans to acquire companies in Africa and Southeast Asia to boost subscriber revenue.

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"We are interested in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and some other emerging markets like those in Africa," Wang Jianzhou, president of theBeijing-based company, said in an interview yesterday at the Boao Forum on the southern Chinese island ofHainan. He declined to identify companies or say if anacquisitionwas likely this year.

China Mobile Communications is seeking to raise sales abroad because domestic growth comes mainly from the 800 million people in the nation's rural areas, where spending is lower. Increased interest in Asian assets from Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. andHong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. has increased asset prices.

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

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

The Chinese company failed to buy Luxembourg-based Millicom seven months earlier, and had tried to acquire Pakistan Telecommunications Co., the nation's second-biggest mobile carrier, in 2005.

The company seeks to parlay its experience running Hong Kong-listed China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest wireless carrier by users, to other emerging markets with a low user base. China's government is also urging companies to venture abroad as the domestic market is open wider to foreign firms as part of World Trade Organization commitments.