June 16 (Bloomberg) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest wireless operator, agreed to pay $350 million to buy AK Kahn & Co.'s 30 percent stake in mobile-phone carrier TM International (Bangladesh) Ltd.

The purchase is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, Tokyo-based DoCoMo said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. The remaining 70 percent of the Bangladesh company, operator of the Aktel service, is owned by TM International Bhd, which was spun off from Telekom Malaysia Bhd. in April.

The stake gives DoCoMo access to a faster-growing market than Japan where UBS AG estimates only a quarter of Bangladesh's 131 million people have mobile phones. The offer is 18 percent less than the $425 million that Reuters reported this month DoCoMo was prepared to pay.

DoCoMo plans to participate in the Bangladesh company's management and share its technological know-how to bolster the return on its investment, Shuichiro Ichikoshi, a DoCoMo spokesman, said by telephone today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 16, 2008 05:19 EDT