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BPL Mobile scouts for partner

Staff Reporter

— Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

TELECOM TETE-E-TETE: The Chairman, BPL Mobile Cellular Ltd., Rajeev Chandrasekhar (left), with the Union Minister for Communications & IT, Dayanidhi Maran, at a press conference in Coimbatore on Saturday.

COIMBATORE: Setting at rest all speculation about "sale and takeover of BPL Mobile", Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BPL Mobile Group announced on Saturday that the company was on the look-out for a strategic partner.

Talking to reporters on the eve of BPL Mobile's eighth anniversary in the Rest of Tamil Nadu circle, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the strategic partnership, "be it with an overseas firm or a domestic one, will be finalised in 2006-07 fiscal."

"When we start looking at other businesses and newer markets, we may need a strategic partner. We are talking, evaluating and meeting people — we really want a partner who will stay the long haul with us, make the necessary investments," he saidand pointed out that BPL Mobile was one of the few telecom firms without a partnership. "Having a foreign partner is our intention but we are not averse to domestic firms as well."

At present every large telecom operator in the world was focussed on India since India, which was the fastest growing Global Satellite Mobile (GSM) market, he said.

Asked about the slow pace of growth, which BPL Mobile witnessed, especially in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Chandrasekhar said "it was a regulator-mandated disadvantage" that had affected BPL first five-year and second five-year operations. "But we managed to survive and remain when many of the players actually disappeared". The policies of the government in the last three years went against people who had taken all the risk in building the industry and were in favour of people who wanted to get into business in 2000 and later, he alleged.

In spite of all odds, BPL Mobile witnessed a topline growth of 40 per cent and bottomline growth of 60 per cent last year. "We have plans to invest Rs. 700 crore across all our markets in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu will get a lion's share of nearly Rs. 200 crore. We expect to grow by 50 per cent this year," he added.

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