China Mobile Communications has failed to bid for a controlling stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), while competing with Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) and SingTel.

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, minister for Pakistan Privatization and Investment, said over the weekend that Etisalat has won the second-round bid for a 26 per cent stake in the state-owned PTCL.

He said the transaction still needs approval from Pakistan's Privatization Commission.

If approved, Etisalat is scheduled to finish transactions in the coming two months.

Etisalat beat China Mobile and SingTel with a purchase price of US$2.5 billion.

The price offered by China Mobile is US$1.409 billion and SingTel US$1.167 billion.

China Mobile was not immediately available for comment.

Compared with China Mobile, Etisalat is much more confident on the Pakistan market, said China Securities analyst Dai Chunrong.

"In other words, China Mobile is quite cautious on international purchases," she said.

She believed the bid failure was normal for a company that is simply testing the water to expand overseas.

"Lack of experience in international purchasing as well as international operations may be partly to blame for the loss," she said.

Shares in China Mobile rose 0.35 per cent to HK$28.65 in yesterday's trade.

As international purchase has already become common practice, Dai believes China Mobile will draw up purchase plans for the years ahead.

"China Mobile, as the world's largest mobile phone carrier in terms of subscribers, is fully capable of buying operators in countries which have a stable political environment and sound relationship with China," said Chen Jinqiao, director of the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

Company figures show that China Mobile recorded a net profit of 42 billion yuan (US$5.06 billion), up 18.13 per cent from the previous year.

The company announced yesterday that it added 3.4 million subscribers in May, up 1.6 per cent from the previous month, to 220.51 million.

"But at this stage, overseas expansions for China Mobile are likely to be found in developing countries and neighbouring regions," Chen said.

In fact, domestic telecom carriers have already started to look for favourable overseas purchases.

For example, the fixed-line carrier China Netcom Group in January bought a 20 per cent stake in Hong Kong's operator PCCW Ltd for US$1 billion.

In March, China Unicom secured a licence to offer a CDMA (code division multiple access) cellular service in Macao.

(China Daily June 21, 2005)