One Night in Bangkok: Finally an Interesting Move for China Mobile

After numerous bungled attempts at overseas m&a, finally we’re seeing something interesting coming from China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL). Rather than go it alone, the world’s largest but still largely provincial telco is reportedly teaming up with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo (Tokyo: 9437) and South Korea’s SK Telecom (Seoul: 17670) in a bid for AIS, Thailand’s largest privately held telco which is also heavily in debt. (English article) While I’ve been a big doubter on China Mobile’s previous m&a attempts, believe it or not I think this one may make sense, or at least the way they’re going about it. Joining hands with two of the region’s biggest telcos should mean this deal could actually get done, and that once it’s done that AIS could also be run profitably. Of course, I’d love to see the region’s m&a master, Singtel (Singapore: STEL), in on the deal as well for an even bigger stamp of approval. But as deals go, this one could work if the trio can pull it off, giving China Mobile valuable exposure to a market with big potential.