Airtel operate in Bangladesh in their own brand

Bharti Airtel is set to introduce its own brand in Bangladesh, targeting the youth and rural population in the six-operator mobile market. The brand will be named Airtel. The company, which has already acquired a 70 percent stake in Abu Dhabi Group's Warid Telecom, plans to localise its branding in Bangladesh, considering the cultural proximity. "Our plan is to satisfy customers first by offering affordable and quality services," said Monoj Kohli, chief executive officer ( CEO) and joint managing director of Bharti Airtel. "Bharti Airtel will meet customer expectation, which is yet to be met by others," said Kohli in a press meet at The Westin Dhaka. Sanjay Kapoor, deputy CEO of Bharti Airtel, disclosed some initial plans to boost the customer base in the existing Warid networks in Bangladesh, which has a mobile penetration rate of 32 percent. "We look to youth and rural customers," he said, referring to Bharti Airtel's success in India in adding rural customers into its 120 million customer-base. In India, the youth and rural segment accounts for around 60 percent of its customers. "We are not focusing on profitability initially. Rather, we want to satisfy customers," said Kapoor. "Bangladesh and India are similar in many ways. We are confident about doing something new with our cultural proximity." Earlier, Bharti Airtel said it would inject $300 million in initial investment to take over a 70 percent stake in Warid, the fourth largest mobile company in Bangladesh. The transition will be completed in the next three months, as per the deal. Warid will issue new shares at a nominal price to hand 70 percent of its stake to Airtel. Airtel also will bear all of Warid's debt to local banks and other organisations. Muneer Farooqui, chief executive officer ( CEO) of Warid Telecom Bangladesh, said Dhabi Group had decided to go for partnership as the group was facing a financial crisis because of the global economic meltdown. "We were not away from the global recession. That is why we sought partnership," he said. Warid made its Bangladesh debut as the sixth operator in May 2007. But the company did not perform well in attracting a significant customer base because of a poor branding strategy in comparison to other market players.