Euphemism of the day

In the conference call slides for this transaction, Vodafone uses the phrase "Vodafone approach is similar to that for a new licence." Translation - here is a 9m subscriber business which has to be rebuilt from scratch - Telsim capex for the past three years combined was apparently only $120m. Based on the $4.55bn transaction value and performance KPIs from H1 2005, it looks like Vodafone is paying $523 per sub for a user base which on average (again my calculation) appears to generate undiscounted lifetime subscriber value of $540. It's tempting to conclude that there is a slight air of desperation to make up for lost time in emerging markets.