CAT gauges Hutch value

       CAT Telecom says it will hire a financial consultant this week to assess the value of the Hutchison CDMA mobile network covering 25 central provinces before concluding a takeover deal within 60 days.
       Krisada Kaweeyarn, executive chairman of the CAT board, said the takeover would allow the state telecom enterprise to integrate marketing and apply a singlenetwork strategy also in its own CDMA network covering the other 51 provinces.
       Hong Kong-based Hutchison has invested 40 billion baht in the Hutch CDMA network and operates it under a subsidiary named BFKT.
       The network was leased to CAT to provide service. Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia, a joint venture held 26%by CAT and 74% by Hutchison, is the marketing arm of the service. The service has only 900,000 customers in a market of 65 million, as CDMA has struggled to compete with the GSM mobile standard.
       Mr Krisada said that a buyout proposal had been talked about for two years.
       CAT's provincial CDMA network has a capacity of 3 million numbers but only 300,000 users.
       The buyout will be among the challenges for CAT president, Jirayuth Roongsrithong, whose appointment was endorsed on Sept 9 by the Finance Ministry. His performance will be evaluated every six months.