Is Ncell case, a biggest scam in Telecom Industry in Nepal ? An Analysis
Ncell, Axiata stated that it sold its 80% shares to UK based company on 2 December 2023. After this news, there have been outrage concern to government authority, governing bodies, general public and media on various aspects like financial, legal and corporate sector.
The concern was more alarming as Ncell claim that it sold it’s share at just Rs 6 Arba. Earlier before 6 years, Axiata bought it at whooping 1 Kharba 3 Arba. Within this period how can share worth such huge amount gone to just 6 Arba. For this we will check some factor.
There are many reasons which will always give a second thought about cams on Ncell’s sales in shares and among all, infrastructure and finance is always on the top. Lets examine some of the infrastructure investment, which when valuated will give some hint behind this skeptical low price in sales of shares.
Ncell, today holds more than 3500 BTS, a tower in which our phones get access or we can simply call an access network. For single BTS, it cost more than 80 Lakh. so all together, it will be around 10 Arab. Similarly, there is backbone , BSC and MSC network along with East West backhaul optical fiber connectivity. The infrastructure is all of asset and have valuation. Secondly, Ncell currently have Data Center at Kathmandu offering high end Tier , world class infrastructure services to market customers. This also cost more than 1 Arba.
IN addition, Ncell existing customer base, fiber internet to corporate customer and other various services, the cost that Ncell have sold its shares is extremely low. Everyone in tech industry knows this scenario, even government authorities. But no one is likely to oppose or do counter to this all approaches as done by Ncell.