20000316

WorldCALL to go

public on 27th

with 9.5m shares

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: WorldCALL would be the first company in two years to go public on March 27, and provisional trading in the scrip will commence from Thursday at the Karachi Stock Exchange.

WorldCALL's 'initial public offering' (IPO) comprises 9.5 million shares at a price of Rs. 15 per share. The funds raised through IPO would increase the equity capital base of WorldCALL to Rs. 515 million, inclusive of the premium account. WorldCALL Payphones Limited commenced its operations in July 1996 with a licence from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and in less than four years it has now become a leading payphone service provider in Pakistan. WorldCALL's network of 6,100 payphones spread over 80 cities and towns is supported by 15 offices and a work force of 400 employees. The distribution network of WorldCALL Payphones covers over 6,500 retail outlets selling smart cards for payphones.

WorldCALL's shareholders include First Capital Securities Corporation (FCSC) and Middle East based private investor and financial institutions of Europe, and domestic financial institutions of Pakistan.

Talking about the business of the company, Mumtaz Ali Sayed, Director First Capital Telecommunication Group, indicated that WorldCALL was the first company to introduce the concept of 'supervised payphone' services in the country and is the first company in Pakistan to segment and successfully operate in both supervised and 'stand-alone' payphone markets.

Moreover, the company has also introduced fax service on a limited scale at some of its supervised payphone outlets, he said. Explaining business strategy, Syed said that supervised payphones are being placed in retail shops and are operated by retailers selling call minutes to customers. By doing this, the company is targeting those smaller customers who prefer paying for units consumed instead of purchasing the entire card. These services are also targeted at the customer segment that needs assistance in making nationwide and international telephone calls.

Moreover, WorldCALL started installing "stand-alone" payphones in 1998 and at present has 570 "stand-alone" payphones located at select sites. To take advantage of the lack of telephone infrastructure in the country and the need for provision of basic telephony services to a large segment, WorldCALL intends to aggressively expand its supervised and "stand-alone" payphone network over the next two years.

Another senior executive at the company, Aamir Chishti, highlighted the main incentives for supervised payphone service that include: lower initial capital costs for the operator; economic advantage to the customer of paying only for the calls made; assisting the general public in making phone calls owing to lower literacy rate; eliminating the risk of vandalism and misuse of payphones; relatively lower cost of payphone installation and maintenance; and lower cost per unit of the smart card.

Chishti added that telecom technology highlighted the technical aspects of the project.

Chishti said that the group had launched an ISP in Lahore in November 1999 which is expected to start operations in Islamabad and Karachi by May 2000. Additionally, preparations are underway to develop web based applications with special emphasis on local content. WorldCALL has signed an O & M agreement with PTCL for installing 50,000 payphones all over Pakistan using wireless local loop (WLL) technology. WorldCALL is in the process of finalising award of contract for equipment and system supply with assistance from Contactica, an Arthur D Little Company, as technical consultant.

Chishti rated the Pakistan market as an ideal opportunity for WLL deployment as the population is relatively remote from major urban centres and central office locations and not many people have telephone connection. WLL has been successfully deployed in many countries in Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

WorldCALL has filed for a nationwide licence to set up a Cable TV network. WorldCALL also intends to become a leading company in providing Cable TV services to the people of Pakistan, Chishti claimed. WorldCALL will be opting for state-of the art technology and distribution network capable of interactive communication which will be capable of providing teletext, multimedia services, internet, security system, pay per view etc.

Rehan Shoukat, the head of international sales at FCABN AMRO, has indicated that First Capital Group should also go for listing of its other businesses such as ISP, international calling cards etc as presently there is a huge appetite for the technology stocks among the foreign investors for Pakistan.