Bharti Airtel is set to introduce its own brand in Bangladesh, targeting the youth and rural population in the six-operator mobile market. The brand will be named Airtel.
Airtel already acquired a 70 percent stake in Abu Dhabi Group’s Warid Telecom and plans to localize its branding in Bangladesh, considering the cultural proximity.
Earlier, Bharti Airtel said it would inject $300 million in initial investment to take over a 70 percent stake in Warid, the fourth largest mobile company in Bangladesh.
The transition will be completed in the next three months, as per the deal. Warid will issue new shares at a nominal price to hand 70 percent of its stake to Airtel. Airtel also will bear all of Warid’s debt to local banks and other organisations.
Warid made its Bangladesh debut as the sixth operator in May 2007. But the company did not perform well in attracting a significant customer base because of a poor branding strategy in comparison to other market players.
