VietNamNet Bridge – The CDMA mobile service provider S-Fone has confirmed that it is seeking the partners to sell stakes after South Korean SK Telecom withdrew from the Business Cooperation Contract (BCC). Since the beginning of 2010, S-Fone has been run by Saigon Postel SPT.

Mr Ho Hong Son

According to local newspaper VnExpress, after shifting from the business mode of BCC into joint venture, the South Korean in the BCC – SK Telecom - will still be a member of S-Fone which holds 20 percent of stakes for 1-2 years of the joint venture’s operation. After that, SPT will purchase the capital contributed by SK Telecom in the joint venture and begin selling stakes up to 30 percent of chartered capital to new partners.

The newspaper quoted Ho Hong Son, General Director of SPT as saying that the sale prices will be defined based on the market opportunities and principle of ensuring the highest benefit for shareholders.

Prior to that, the plan to shift from BCC to joint venture got the approval from the Government in August 2010. However, the two parties in the BCC, Saigon Postel and SK Telecom, will have to complete a lot of procedures to officially turn into a joint venture. The process is expected to take one or two years. Currently, S-Fone is one of the two CDMA mobile networks left with the total number of subscribers of seven million.

Ho Hong Son said in the interview given to Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon several days ago that S-Fone is trying to complete the necessary procedures to set up a joint venture with SK Telecom and it hopes the procedures will be completed in the first quarter of 2011.

Son has affirmed that after forming a joint venture with new partners, S-Fone will still follow a consistent policy on developing 3G services into 4G services.

In fact, it was previously expected that the contract on changing the business mode with SK Telecom would be completed in mid 2010. However, Son admitted that there are more things to do than previously thought.

Son has revealed that many partners have sent words that they wish to cooperate with S-Fone. When asked about the potential partners, he said that at least 10 foreign partners have shown their interest in buying S-Fone’s stakes. These include the partners which are running CDMA networks in Japan such as KDD, or China Unicom, and some Singaporean telecom companies. Son also said that domestic partners have also said they want to cooperate with S-Fone

When asked what the biggest values of S-Fone are, Son said that partners eye the value of the enterprise in the future, not the assets the enterprise is now having. This means that they look into the current infrastructure and they believe that the enterprises will develop when they inject their money in.

Besides, Son also said that partners are eyeing the frequency band S-Fone is using, 700MHz and 900 MHz, the ones which allow to strongly develop 3G and 4G technologies. He also believes that S-Fone, after many years of operation, has become a well known brand, which is really a big asset in the eyes of the potential partners of S-Fone.

P.V