The big news in Bangladesh yesterday was the resignation of the CEO of country's largest mobile phone company. From The Daily Star coverage:
Anders Jensen, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, resigned from the company on Monday.
Grameenphone in a press statement to The Daily Star said, “Anders Jensen has recently decided to shorten his tenure as the CEO of Grameenphone primarily due to family reasons.”
Meanwhile, the company officials have made an assurance that Jensen's departure will not hurt the IPO issue.
Grameenphone has finalised its plan to raise $300 million (Tk 2,058 crore) -- $ 150 million from the stock market and the rest through private placement or pre-IPO.
The company's IPO proposal is now under consideration of Securities and Exchange Commission.
In October 2007, Jensen replaced Erik Aas when the company had enjoyed tremendous growth. But later the Jensen days in Garmeen were marred by different unlawful incidents such as VoIP business conducted by his previous management.
The Grameenphone board appointed the Swedish national to head the largest mobile phone operator for three years until October 2010. But Jensen decided to leave his position by December 2008.
Looking for some analysis of this, I found the following. Please post your comments below.
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Subject: AT Capital Telecoms Update - 24 September 2008Key themes in this issue:
• A surprise announcement today was that Anders Jensen, Grameenphone's
(GP) CEO, has decided to step down well before his term finished at
the end of 2010.• Although GP stated that it would have no impact on the IPO, local
and international investors are not surprisingly carefully assessing
what the surprise events actually mean.• Among other potential issues, it is natural to consider whether the
change in leadership reflects the disappointing performance of
Grameenphone which might be a negative for the IPO
• Was Telenor concerned about the recent problems and uncertainty as a
result of the ownership conflict with Professor Yunus and Grameen
Telecom?• A more optimistic view is that the change in leadership may reflect
a behind-the-scenes deal between Telenor and Grameen Telecom for a
Bangladeshi CEO that might address some of the concerns Professor
Yunus has.• However, it still does not address the fundamental issue of Grameen
Telecom moving to a majority ownership stake in GP.• While there are still many unknowns, including the tax dispute
between GP and NBR, it appears ambitious, albeit not impossible, for
the IPO to be completed before year-end.• If the company wants a successful IPO, it is imperative that the
company provides the market and especially foreign investors with
greater clarity on the future CEO, a resolution of the shareholder
dispute with Professor Yunus, and the tax dispute with NBR.
