Japanese telecoms firm NTT Docomo unveiled today that it has gone out of its shy, retiring way and has bought a 30% stake in TM International Limited, a mobile operator based in Bangladesh. Docomo wound up paying $350 million to buy A.K. Khan's 30% investment in TM International. The deal will see Docomo collectively owning its shares directly and indirectly through four special purpose companies.

TM International has around 1600 employees and achieved an operating turnover of 14.4 billion Taka in 2007, which is around $210 million. The remaining 70% of the operator is owned by Telekom Malaysia International.

It is to be hoped that Docomo doesn't run into similar problems in Bangladesh as did Telenor. The Norwegian operator found itself in a bit of a pickle after a Danish TV reporter discovered non-humane working conditions at its subsidiary Grameenphone and one of its suppliers early this year. Apart from that, Telenor executives working at Grameenphone also faced an investigation by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The execs were apparently illegally transferring money to other Telenor operations, such as Malaysian operator Digi Telecom, to subsidise them. X