Telenor Pakistan is Reportedly Up for Grabs

Telenor is moving forward with its plans of selling its business in Pakistan, which is estimated at about $1 billion, reported Bloomberg today. The Norwegian telecom giant in collaboration with the city Citigroup will invite bidders for the sale later this month, the sources disclosed to Bloomberg. While we know that Telenor Pakistan is up for grabs for several years now, the challenge for the Norwegian operator is to find a viable deal, that could make business sense for the group and the shareholders. We know that PTCL was in advanced talks with Telenor, but the outcome is yet to be seen. If Bloomberg is to be believed, then the development has taken its final shape at this point in time. More recently the head of Telenor Group reaffirmed the plans for realignment of Asian operations, and it appears today’s Bloomberg report is around the same development. ProPakistani reached out to Telenor Pakistan for the comment but it resorted to not to respond to speculations and rumors. Back in July, Telenor had claimed that it would carry out a strategic review of its operations in Pakistan after spending $244 million in a struggling economy. Bloomberg, without specifically mentioning anyone, said that entities based in the Middle East and Asia that are already working in Pakistan are expected to turn up in the bidding process later this month. Talks are going on and the Norwegian telecom company is hopeful that they will lead to fruition.