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.
Market Data
- Regional trends in merger & investment activity 2006-08
- Regional listings of fees paid for licences 2006-08
- Regional rankings of investors by proportionate subscriptions Q108
- Regional listings of top 10 investments, 2006 & 2007
- Regional review of mobile subscription numbers 2006-08
- Regional forecasts of mobile subscription numbers 2008-13
- Global net additions by region, Q107-Q108
- Global holdings and proportionate subscribers by investor, 1Q08
Who should read this report:
- Operators
- Vendors
- Financial Institutions
- Consultancies
- Government
- Regulators
Countries covered:
- Europe
- North America
- Latin America
- Middle East & Africa
- Indian sub continent
- Southeast Asia
