Vietnamese Military-run telecom firm, Viettel, has received licence to invest in five foreign countries and currently, Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) is providing telecommunications services through five subsidiaries in four countries.

Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone are three mobile networks with the largest market share in Vietnam. According to White Book on information technology and communications in 2011, Viettel accounted for 36.72 percent of the market share, MobiFone at 29.11 percent and VinaPhone at 28.71 percent of the market share.

In 2007, Military Telecommunications Joint Stock Co (Viettel) set up Viettel Global Investment Joint Stock Co (Viettel Global) with an initial chartered capital of three trillion dong to invest in foreign countries. In 2011, Viettel Global planned to hike its chartered capital to 6.219 trillion dong.

Presently, Viettel has gotten investment licenses in five foreign countries including Laos, Cambodia, Haiti, Peru and Mozambique. Particularly, in February 2009, Viettel launched the first mobile network in foreign country namely Metfone network in Cambodia. Eight months later, Viettel continued to launch Unitel network in Laos.

In Peru and Mozambique, Viettel is building and installing infrastructure. Most recently, Viettel has become the single company to offer 3G technology in Haiti.

According to the local newspaper Dau Tu (Investment), Viettel Global is seeking approval from shareholders to invest in telecommunication network project in the Republic of Mali, with a total expected investment of more than $273.3 million.

VNPT, the owner with 100 percent stake in two networks of MobiFone and VinaPhone, is also launching some investment projects in foreign countries through VNPT Global Investment Joint Stock Co (VNPT Global). Formed in January 2008 with chartered capital of 200 billion dong, four founding shareholders of VNPT Global are VNPT (39 percent stake), MobiFone (5 percent), Vietnam Post Corp-VNPost (5 percent) and Singapore Telecom (51 percent).

VNPT Global has been investing in underground cable services, virtual mobile network and broadband internet through five subsidiaries in the US (Deluxe Telecom LLC and VNPT Global US), Singapore (VNPT GS Ltd), Hong Kong (VNPT Global HK Ltd) and the Czech Republic (VNPT - GC) and is continuing to expand its network.

In early 2012, VNPT plans to merge VNPT Global and MobiFone to focus all resources for MobiFone to invest in foreign countries.

Regarding profit, in 2011, Viettel's revenue was estimated at 117 trillion dong and profit at $1 billion (or 20 trillion dong). Its revenue from overseas investments grew over 100 percent to reach over 10 trillion dong and after tax profit was approximately $70 million.

Meanwhile, VNPT estimated to gain 120.8 trillion dong revenue in 2011, up 18 percent on year. Currently, VNPT has not yet released detailed business performance of MobiFone and VNPT Global. However, according to the statistics in 2010, MobiFone's profit would be about six trillion dong and accounted for 52 percent of the group's total profit.

Source: Vietbiz24