RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI ( 2008-11-22 04:36:04 ) :Telenor Pakistan on Friday entered into an agreement to acquire 51 per cent of the shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank for a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of USD 12.5 million (PKR 1 billion approximately) through a direct rights issue. The proceeds from the rights issue will be used to finance further development of the bank, however the transaction is subject to full regulatory approval.

"The acquisition of 51 per cent of the shares in Tameer Microfinance Bank is part of our strategy to offer financial services in Pakistan," said Jon Eddy Abdullah, CEO of Telenor Pakistan. He said that Telenor Pakistan is a 100 percent subsidiary of Telenor Group and a leading mobile operator in Pakistan with more than 18 million subscribers.

The Telenor Group has close to 160 million mobile subscribers world-wide, with revenues of approximately 19 billion dollars in 2007, he added. "We are pleased with the deal we have entered, as Telenor is a solid partner for further growth, and we have a common view about how financial and telecommunication sectors together can improve customer offerings by combining services," said Nadeem Hussain, President and Chief Executive Officer Tameer Bank.

He said that Tameer Bank, a fast growing microfinance bank licensed by State Bank of Pakistan in August 2005, has a current network of 27 on-line branches and 23 sales & service centers across Sindh and Punjab. He said that Tameer Bank has given a new complexion to the microfinance sector through the induction of innovative, technology-driven financial services.

"Tameer aims to empower Pakistan's under-served population through choice of bank tellers, ATM machines and Point of Sale (POS) terminals," he added. He said that since inception, Tameer has disbursed more than Rs 2.2 billion with active portfolio of Rs 950 million and over 40,000 loan customers with delinquency trend of 1.4 percent- supported with a deposit base of more than Rs 670 million. While the total customer base of Tameer has crossed 65,000 with staff strength of 950.



Copyright Business Recorder, 2008