Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke in Dhaka

Grameenphone's (GP) parent company Telenor's CEO Sigve Brekke arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday (2 April) for a two-day visit to celebrate the country's leading telecom operator's 27 years of success.

In addition to meeting with the GP team and some major corporate clients, the visiting Telenor CEO plans to meet with State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak, according to sources.

Sigve Brekke has made several visits to Dhaka in the past decade, as reported by Grameenphone officials.

Telenor, in partnership with Grameen Telecom, launched GP in 1997 during the first tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, establishing it as the second mobile carrier in Bangladesh. Over the years, GP has successfully democratised telecommunication by penetrating rural areas.

By bringing down the price of a cell phone connection with a device by one-tenth in a few years and spreading the cellular phones across rural Bangladesh, GP successfully broke the urban-centric monopoly of the then lone player Citycell.

As the pioneer in capturing the nationwide mass market, GP surged forward and emerged as the largest publicly listed company in Bangladesh in its 12th year, in 2009.

Unlike in India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, where Telenor struggled in business and eventually decided to exit, GP became its biggest success story.

In Bangladesh, competition emerging with the entry of several carriers that came through a series of acquisitions and even a merger could barely bite on the business of Grameenphone until the regulator slapped SMP (operator with significant market power) restrictions on the gigantic market leader due to its 46% subscriber market share and over 50% revenue market share in 2019.

A monopoly that had emerged by breaking another monopoly began to face regulatory challenges.

Additionally, a legal battle with the regulator over billion-dollar audit claims, followed by a yearlong ban on selling new connections citing "poor network services", compounded by the SMP restrictions, which hindered customer acquisition and sales growth, weakened GP slightly in terms of growth and market share.

Competitors such as Robi Axiata and Banglalink managed to grow their subscriber base, revenue, and profitability faster than GP over the last four years.

Nevertheless, Grameenphone still is the market leader in terms of network coverage, subscriber and revenue and it is way ahead of competitors in terms of profitability.

In 2023, GP secured over Tk15,800 crore in revenue from its 8.22 crore subscribers, while the second largest player Robi Axiata got over Tk9,900 crore in revenue from its 5.87 crore subscribers.

GP's net profit margin – after all expenses and taxes – came down to 20.8% in 2023 from 24% in 2019, which grew to 3.23% from 0.23% for Robi over the same period.

The other operators, Banglalink and Teletalk, were yet to post profits after taxes.

In 2024, GP's 34.2% shareholder, Grameen Telecom, a not-for-profit firm founded by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, is facing a fresh struggle with Grameen Bank over the control of its board, as Yunus lost control of Grameen Bank much earlier.

Analysts perceive that the adverse relationship with the government has kept dragging GP shares down since the withdrawal of the floor price mechanism earlier last month.

Despite losing more than 17% decline in a month, GP with its over Tk32,000 crore market value, still, is the largest firm listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange.

Robi, on the other hand, losing 10%, is the fifth largest listed firm with Tk14,142 crore market capitalisation as of yesterday.

Following his services to the Norway's Defense Ministry as political advisor and deputy minister, Sigve Brekke became an associate at the Center for Science and International Affairs, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA in 1996.

He joined Norway's state-owned telecom player Telenor in 1998 as an advisor. In 1999 he was employed there as Manager Business Development and with his gradual ascend to important roles home and abroad, he became the Telenor President and global CEO in 2015. In the meantime, he had gathered experiences in leading Telenor businesses in the Asia region.