Norwegian telecoms operator Telenor ASA expects heavy investment in data traffic to drive its growth for years and is banking on unique low-cost offerings in key Asian markets like Bangladesh and India, it said on Wednesday.
Telenor, which has 172 million customers across Europe and Asia, sees growth opportunities since only a fifth of its customers are so far using the Internet, and sees Thailand - already its second-biggest territory by revenue after Norway - as a future star of data growth, providing a model for many of its Asian markets.
Telenor, once a favourite among investors for its exposure to the relatively healthy economies of the Nordic countries and Asia, had fallen out of favour in recent months because of a slowdown in growth and its activities in Russia and Ukraine.
Yet Chief Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas said Telenor would stick with its investment in Russia-focused Vimpelcom, in which it holds a 43 percent stake, even though its view of Russia had changed because of the conflict in Ukraine.
"If you started from scratch, it would be hard to see a western company like Telenor would do a significant investment in Russia right now," Baksaas told Reuters.
"We are where we are and right now we have to position the company ... in each and every market that we have," he said, noting the impact of Western sanctions against Russia was not yet clear. "It's far too early to speculate on what kind of development potential sanctions can have on this operation ... Generally speaking, telecoms ... is a needed infrastructure."
Elsewhere, Telenor has rolled out a slimmed-down version of Facebook in India, offering content without videos and high-resolution pictures, giving a bigger customer base access.
"We are doing this differently than in any other market," Chief Financial Officer Richard Aa told an investor conference. "This is the way to sell Internet in very low-cost, spectrum-scarce markets ... We see a big value-creation opportunity."
Many European telecom companies have struggled to cash in on surging data traffic, making it hard to justify heavy investment, but Telenor, which has 154 million users in Asia, has stood out because of the relatively strong returns it has achieved.
It is also offering financial services such as money transfer in Pakistan and has invested in classified advertising, expecting the market to move to mobile platforms.
"What we have done in some Asian markets is give customers very small data packets to enjoy, see and learn what Facebook is about," Baksaas told Reuters. "This is to get people on board, then we work to keep them there."
Baksaas said the Thai unit could offer the best potential growth prospects in Asia, looking beyond short-term political uncertainties linked to months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests.
In the first quarter, Telenor's Asian operations, particularly in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, drove profit growth, more than offsetting weakness in places like Denmark and central Europe.

Bank giant HSBC said on Wednesday that its net profit slid 18 percent in the first quarter as lower revenues offset cost-cutting, but added that bad debt charges fell.
Profit after tax stood at $5.069 billion (3.64 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March.
That compared with $6.211 billion in the first quarter of 2013, the British bank said in an earnings statement.
"In the first quarter we maintained control of costs," HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in the statement.
He added that "revenue was lower than the previous year's first quarter, which benefited from a number of specific items" and said that "loan impairment charges fell".
Revenue dropped 8.0 percent to $15.71 billion, while pre-tax profit was down 20 percent at $6.785 billion.
The Asia-focused lender is pushing on with its savings programme, having announced last year plans to cut costs by a further $2.0 billion to $3.0 billion between 2014 and 2016.
HSBC shares were trading down 1.13 percent at 597.3 pence in the wake of the earnings update on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was showing a loss of 0.36 percent at 6,774.15 points by mid-morning.
"With the exception of Commercial Banking, all (HSBC) units have found the going tough as has been the case for many of its global competitors," Richard Hunter, head of equities Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said following the update.
"More positively, impairments fell, the capital cushion remains robust and, from an investment perspective, the dividend yield of 5.1 percent is attractive given the current interest rate environment.

Singer Bangladesh, an electronics and home appliances retailer, has partnered with Bank Asia and Western Union to provide money transfer services.
With the help of Bank Asia, selected Singer outlets will distribute remittances that will come in through Western Union, a global money transfer company.
“Now, money can be remitted from more than 200 countries through Western Union and can be withdrawn from 371 Singer Mega and Singer Plus outlets across the country,” said Syed Nazimuddin, senior executive vice president and head of foreign remittances of Bank Asia. Singer will make the payments on behalf of Bank Asia, Nazimuddin added.

Singer integrated its data system -- Singer Information System -- with Bank Asia and Western Union. Bank Asia will work as a settlement bank by being a principle agent of Western Union.
“We want to create an opportunity of easy access to funds at any time, in any corner of Bangladesh.” People can withdraw money between 9am and 8pm, 365 days a year, he said.
“I hope the system will get a good response from the expatriates, who send money from different parts of the world through Western Union.”
The expatriates' families can meet their immediate demands for money during holidays through Singer, he added.
“Being a non-financial institute, we have started this service as part of product diversification,” said Raziur Rahman, marketing communication manager at Singer Bangladesh.
“Financial services have a huge potential in Bangladesh. We want to reach more clients through the services. It will add extra value to our services because our network is very big.”
Singer has a presence in every corner of the country, which will help people collect money easily, Rahman said.
Bank Asia accounted for 3 percent of $14.46 billion in remittances received in fiscal 2012-13.
In 2013, Bank Asia disbursed remittances worth $345 million, registering a growth of 16.38 percent from the previous year. The bank has a target to receive remittances worth $600 million in 2014.

LONDON: British bank Barclays said Tuesday that net profit rose 15 percent in the first quarter, aided by its retail, credit card and corporate banking divisions.

Earnings after taxation climbed to 965 million ($1.6 billion, 1.2 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, compared with 839 million in the same part of 2013, Barclays said in a results statement.

However, the lender added that adjusted pre-tax profit, stripping out fluctuations in the value of the bank’s own debt and provisions to reimburse customers for mis-sold products, sank 5.0 percent to 1.69 billion in the quarter.

The drop in adjusted profits was sparked by an ongoing slowdown in fixed- income trading at the group’s investment banking arm.

The results were published ahead of the group’s strategy update that will be unveiled on Thursday by chief executive Antony Jenkins.

“A continued strong momentum across our retail, cards and corporate banking franchises, all of which generated higher returns year on year, offset by a significant decline in FICC (Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities) income within the investment bank, resulting in group adjusted profit before tax decreasing 5.0 percent,” Jenkins added in the statement. — AFP 

Komtar in Penang, Malaysia – The 6th Branch of NBL Money Transfer inaugurated at Komtar in Penang, Malaysia recently. Parveen Haque Sikder, Director & Chairperson, Executive committee, National Bank Limited inaugurated the branch as Chief Guest, reports in a press release.
Ms. Lisa Fatema Haque, Director of NBL Money Transfer, A K M Shafiqur Rahman, Managing Director & CEO, Shamsul Huda Khan, Deputy Managing Director, Mir Mosharref Hossain, Vice President of National Bank Ltd. and Sk. Akhter Uddin Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of NBL Money Transfer Sdn Bhd, Malaysia were also present on the occasion.
A large number of Bangladeshi expatriates, lives in Malaysia also attended the inaugural ceremony. Parveen Haque Sikder also exchanged her views with the Bangladeshi Expatriates residing in Malaysia & motivated them to remit their hard earned money through NBL Money Transfer to Bangladesh and also has requested them to open account with National Bank Limited, Bangladesh.
NBL Money Transfer was established in the year 2009 as a wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank Limited. Since inception the company is managed by National Bank Limited, Bangladesh.