Iliad founder Niel buys Ukraine's third-largest mobile provider
By Gianluca Lo Nostro
Sept 10 (Reuters) -A consortium of investors led by French billionaire Xavier Niel has closed the transaction to acquire and merge Ukrainian mobile operator Lifecell with service provider Datagroup-Volia, the investment firms involved in the deal said on Monday.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
Lifecell is Ukraine's third-largest mobile provider after VEON's VON.AS Kyivstar and Vodafone VOD.L. The operator will merge with Datagroup-Volia, a fixed-telecom and pay-TV firm.
Lifecell was fully owned by Turkcell TCELL.IS. In April, a Kyiv court cleared the path for the acquisition by lifting the seizure of Lifecell's shares belonging to sanctioned Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who held approximately a 20% stake through LetterOne.
KEY QUOTE
"The closing of this landmark transaction will serve as a signal to others that Ukraine offers compelling opportunities, and that the time to invest is now," Niel said in a statement.
BY THE NUMBERS
The deal is worth at least $524.3 million, Turkcell said on Monday. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation will provide $435 million in loans, the firms added.
The new platform is expected to rack up around 10 million mobile users, and more than 4 million people connected via fixed-access network.
CONTEXT
NJJ Holding, the leading investor alongside Horizon Capital, is one of Niel's investment vehicles. It is the sole owner of Atlas Investissement, which is also the top shareholder of telecoms group Millicom MICC.F.
Iliad, at the core of Niel's overarching telco busines, will not be the parent company of this new Ukrainian provider, its CEO Thomas Reynaud told Reuters in August.
WHAT'S NEXT
The international player emerging from this merger may improve competition among convergent operators in Ukraine's telecoms triopoly, Kyivstar's CEO told Reuters on Thursday while the war with Russia weighs on mobile providers' resiliency.
Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Kim Coghill
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
