Abstract
A detailed analysis of the key factors underpinning the acceleration of
investment activity across emerging markets and the ongoing consolidation in
the highly-penetrated markets of North America and Europe.
Key issues addressed:
- To what extent has investment across global mobile markets been impacted
by economic difficulties?
- Where are the world' s new mobile telecoms investment hotspots given the
recent consolidation patterns seen in Europe and North America?
- Who are the world' s largest international investors? Is there an ongoing
shake-up in the global mobile investment market?
- How is market saturation impacting the world' s largest operators' business
models and investment plans?
- What are the new range of investment opportunities in today' s mobile
market around network infrastructure and the provision of content?
Key Coverage
- 2006 represented a bumper year for M&A in the mobile world, as illustrated
by AT&T' s purchase of BellSouth for US$67 billion and Telefonica' s acquisition
of O2 for US$30.8 billion. Both deals reflected the ongoing pattern of
consolidation in North America and Europe. In terms of total value of deal,
there was a considerable decline in M&A activity in 2007 from 2006, although
the number of deals at 55 remained the same.
- Despite the challenges set by global economic difficulties, the mobile
market is showing resilience with financial investors prepared to continue to
make significant investments as shown by TPG Capital and GS Capital Partner' s
acquisition of Alltel for US$27.5 billion in 2007.
- Vodafone continues to buck the trend set by other European mobile
operators in choosing to expand its overseas remit. Whilst the likes of
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom consolidate their operations in Europe and
Telefonica continues to focus on Latin America, Vodafone acquired Telsim
(Turkey) and a majority stake in Hutchison Essar (India) for US$4.5 billion
and US$11.1 billion respectively.
- M&A activity across emerging market continues to be attractive, driven by
a high net addition count of subscription numbers in the Indian sub-continent
(India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), China, southeast Asia (especially Indonesia
and Vietnam), Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Gulf-based operators
STC (Saudi Arabia) and Qtel (Qatar) are testament to this acquiring minority
stakes in Malaysia (Maxis) and Indonesia (Indosat) respectively.
- A new breed of international investor has emerged with many of the world' s
largest mobile operators apparently unwilling to take risks in certain
markets. This has allowed the likes of Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom to invest
in Pakistan and Bangladesh and parts of Africa, Saudi-based HiTS Telecom to
enter Africa and Brazil, and Russian giant Sistema to buy a minority stake in
minor Indian operator Shyam Telelink.
- The impact of high-speed internet services cannot be ignored by anyone
involved in the telecoms industry. With the rapid growth in deployment of
HSDPA, mobile broadband services are helping to ensure that data revenues are
making significant revenue contributions. It is therefore likely that deals
such as Nokia' s recent US$8 billion acquisition of digital mapping company
Navteq will become more common.
Who should read this report:
- Operators
- Vendors
- Financial Institutions
- Consultancies
- Government
- Regulators
Who should read this report:
- Operators
- Vendors
- Financial Institutions
- Consultancies
- Government
- Regulators
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