The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

The owners of Grameenphone - Telenor and Grameen Telecom - in a joint statement have reiterated their commitment to the success of Grameenphone and the ongoing IPO process.

The statement signed by Grameen Bank deputy managing director and Grameenphone board member Dipal C Barua and Telenor senior vice-president and GP board member Per-Erik Hylland read, 'We remain committed to our joint collaboration and our priority remains the continued success of Grameenphone as the benchmark corporate house in Bangladesh.'

'Our commitment also extends to our stated objective of ensuring a seamless execution of the Grameenphone IPO by 2008 and of meaningfully contributing to the development of Bangladesh's capital market and its positive profiling across the globe,' they added in the joint statement.

Grameenphone recently finalised its intention to offload a certain percentage of its shares on to the country's capital market. To do that the company will file an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to float an initial public offering in phases. The envisioned IPO transaction phases include a pre-public offer to global and local institutional investors followed by a public offer to the retail investors of Bangladesh, the statement explained.