SK Telecom May Win Brazil Mobile-Phone Permit, Minister Says
May 17, 2011, 7:02 AM EDTBy Carla Simoes and Jun Yang
(Updates with share price in the fourth paragraph.)
May 17 (Bloomberg) -- SK Telecom Co. may win a permit to operate services in Brazil, the nation’s communications minister said, as South Korea’s largest mobile-phone company seeks to expand abroad.
SK Telecom will aim to offer fourth-generation mobile phone services in Brazil, Paulo Bernardo said in an interview in Brasilia. The South Korean company would become the sixth service provider in the country, he said.
Brazil may offer SK Telecom an opportunity to tap demand for faster networks in emerging markets and help offset slowing revenue growth at home. The company said yesterday it will invest an additional 50 million ringgit ($16.4 million) in Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn, after making $100 million investment in July last year.
Shares in SK Telecom fell 0.3 percent to 163,500 won at the 3:00 p.m. close of trading in Seoul, while the benchmark Kospi index slipped 0.1 percent.
SK Group, the parent of SK Telecom, has been exploring business opportunities in Brazil since another of the group’s units, SK Networks Co., bought a stake in MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA, the mining company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, Irene Kim, a spokeswoman for the Seoul-based phone operator, said by telephone today. She didn’t provide a timeframe for the company’s Brazil plans.
SK Networks’ $700 million investment last year was then the largest investment in iron ore by a South Korean company.
SK Telecom plans to start a fourth-generation wireless service based on long-term evolution technology, known as LTE, in Seoul in July before rolling it out it nationwide by 2013.
The carrier invested $60 million in LightSquared, a U.S. 4G wireless network backed by billionaire Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, Lauren Kim, an SK spokeswoman, said on Feb. 8.
--Editors: Vipin V. Nair
To contact the reporters on this story: Carla Simoes in Brasilia at csimoes1@bloomberg.net; Jun Yang in Seoul at jyang180@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robin Stringer at rstringer@bloomberg.net; Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net
