Millicom to sell Sri Lanka mobile operations to Etisalat

Luxembourg-based Millicom said Friday it had agreed to sell its Sri Lankan mobile operations to Emirates Telecommunications for $155m, completing a divestment programme.

Millicom International Cellular said the sale of its Sri Lankan cellular operations, the country's third-largest, to Emirates Telecommunications Corp, or Etisalat, was expected to be completed by October 20.

"We are very pleased to have agreed to sell our Sri Lanka operations to Etisalat," Millicom CEO Mikaek Grahne said in a statement posted on Millicom's website.

The Abu Dhabi-based company was buying a company with "a strong market position," Grahne said.

Millicom, which operates in 16 countries, announced earlier this year that it was selling operations in Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka to focus on Latin America and Africa. The Cambodia and Laos firms were later sold.

"This agreement represents the final element of our recent divestment programme and will leave the group well positioned to focus on the significant long-term growth opportunities in Latin America and Africa," Grahne said.

Etisalat is 60 percent owned by the UAE government, the world's third biggest oil exporter.

Sri Lanka became the first South Asian country to introduce cellular phones when it unveiled an analog network in 1989.

Home to 20 million people, Sri Lanka's five-player market had 11.5 million mobile phone users at the end of April, according official figures.

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM