Mobifone acquires 95 percent of AVG

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's second largest mobile network operator MobiFone has acquired 95 percent of stake in Audio Visual Global JSC (AVG), an official told local media on January 7 after completing negotiations.

Deputy General Director Nguyen Manh Hung said the carrier would complete the deal with AVG, owner of An Vien pay TV in the next 3 to 6 months. He added that the two sides would cooperate within a year, on the basis of maximising resources to create a new product for the television market and mobile telecommunications. However, he did not reveal the value of the deal.

According to MobiFone's evaluation, AVG network owns a system with good transmission that the carrier could take advantage of to deploy its 4G network in the future, while MobiFone, with its experienced customer care services, can combine TV and mobile telecommunications and bring in huge revenue to the corporation in the future, Hung said.

He added that MobiFone would differ from other competitors by taking advantage of the power of mobile telecom and TV with the high interaction of TV watchers and other MobiFone services.

Currently, AVG has 8 channels and more than 700,000 subscribers.

Hung said MobiFone will retain the successful channels with high ratings of AVG with the MobiFone brand, and added that they will also bring the service that combines TV with mobile telecommunications as soon as possible this year.

Hung said MobiFone was targeting the conversion of all 40 million subscribers of MobiFone into MobiFone TV subscribers. Presently, its subscribers communicate via telecommunications, and in future they can interact via television.

On December 31, MobiFone Chairman Le Nam Tra announced at a meeting that the carrier will invest in providing broadcasting services. They will also invest in retail, added-value services and multimedia in 2016.

MobiFone reached revenues of 36.9 trillion VND (1.63 billion USD) in 2015, an increase of 8.29 percent over 2014, while profits rose 1.1 percent to 7.4 trillion VND (328.3 million USD). It also targeted total revenues of 35.8 trillion VND (1.59 billion USD) in 2016, 10 percent higher than that of 2015, and a profit of 5.2 trillion VND (231 million USD).

As MobiFone's competitors, VNPT is offering over 130 premium channels while the largest carrier, Viettel has also provided its own subscription-based television services.

MobiFone expected to have 20 trillion VND (887.3 million USD) from its initial public offering this year.-VNA