The awaited merger between Robi and Airtel has been postponed once again as the parent companies delayed their agreement till September 26, 2016.
On January 28 this year, both the parent companies signed a definitive agreement to merge Robi and Airtel and were expected to implement it in Bangladesh in the first half of this year.However, the government of Bangladesh did not come to any conclusive decision about the issue.
On June 24 and June 25, some Indian newspapers reported about the deferring issue.
One of the newspapers, The Economic Times, with reference to regulatory filling said, “Bharti Airtel Limited and Axiata Group Berhad have on June 24, 2016 agreed to further extend the (date for signing) Agreement until September 26, 2016, or such other date as the parties may agree.”
Upon completion of the merger, Axiata will hold 68.3 percent controlling stake and Bharti Airtel 25 percent, while the remaining 6.7 percent will be held by the existing shareholder — NTT Docomo of Japan. Post-merger, the combined entity operating as ‘Robi’ will serve approximately 40 million customers.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) raised a demand of Tk 770 crore for the merger process. But the government did not come to any conclusion about the issue and could not finalize it and the High Court for the fifth time extended time after government’s application.
