Telenor’s Norwegian CEO Sigve Brekke recently revealed in an interview that the challenges of doing business in Pakistan were one of the main reasons behind the company’s decision to exit the market.
Brekke highlighted the difficulties of repatriating profits as a critical factor influencing investor decisions to leave the country.However, he contrasted this with Telenor’s situation in Bangladesh, where the company successfully repatriates dividends.
Is Pakistan not good enough for Telenor?
Telenor has invested in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar over the past two decades. However, it merged its business in India with Airtel, sold its Myanmar unit after the military junta took over and merged its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia.
In December 2023, Telenor announced the sale of its Pakistan operations to Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).
Brekke went on to explain that Telenor has no plans to pull investment from Bangladesh or merge its Bangladesh unit Grameenphone with others. He stated that the company had exited some markets and merged in others to prepare for the data growth in those markets.
Also read: Pakistan Projected To Be World’s Sixth Largest Economy By 2075: Goldman Sachs
He added that Telenor saw that it needed to be prepared to provide different types of services and there was not enough business for more than three operators in some markets.
In the case of Pakistan, Brekke said that Telenor could not get the number one position in the market, which was possible in Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh. He further elaborated that the reason behind Telenor’s exit from some countries was to be prepared for the data growth in those markets.
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