A number of international telecoms operators have reportedly expressed an interest in participating in the privatization of Vietnamese state-owned operator Mobifone.
Companies including Norway’s Telenor, Sweden’s Comviq and Australia’s Telstra have shown interest in acquiring stakes in the company.
Mobifone has an estimated brand value of $539 million. Plans for the privatization of the company have been in consideration since 2005 but the process has been repeatedly delayed.
Now the government is pushing to complete the process in 2016-2017 as part of a push to hasten the privatization of state-owned enterprises.
Australia’s Telstra could be a key partner for the operator. Telstra had previously been involved in the Vietnamese market as part of a partnership with Viet Nam Post and Communications, but exited the market in 2003. Now the operator is looking to return to the market by participating in the privatization of Vietnam’s telecom enterprises.
Comviq is meanwhile a former partner to Mobifone and so it also has history in the market, while Telenor has been aggressively pursuing Asian expansion.