Author: Gianluca Lo Nostro
(Reuters) – A consortium of investors led by French billionaire Xavier Niel has completed a deal to acquire and merge Ukrainian mobile operator Lifecell with services provider Datagroup-Volia, investment firms involved in the deal said on Monday.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT
Lifecell is the third-largest mobile services provider in Ukraine after Kyivstar (NASDAQ:) owned by VEON (NASDAQ:) and Vodafone (NASDAQ:) . The operator will merge with Datagroup-Volia, a fixed-line telecommunications and pay-TV company.
Lifecell was wholly owned by Turkcell. In April, a Kiev court cleared the way for the takeover by lifting the seizure of Lifecell shares held by sanctioned Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who owned about 20% of the shares through LetterOne.
Key quote
“The closing of this groundbreaking transaction will send a signal to others that Ukraine offers attractive opportunities and that the time to invest is now,” Niel said in a statement.
IN 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 loans worth $435 million, the companies added.
The up-to-date platform is expected to benefit approximately 10 million mobile users and more than 4 million people connected via fixed-access networks.
CONTEXT
NJJ Holding, a leading investor alongside Horizon Capital, is one of Niel’s investment vehicles. It is the sole owner of Atlas (NYSE:) Investissement, which is also the main shareholder of the Millicom telecommunications group.
Iliad, the core company of Niel’s broader telecoms business, will not be the parent company of the up-to-date Ukrainian operator, its CEO Thomas Reynaud told Reuters in August.
WHAT’S NEXT
The international player that emerges from the merger could improve competition among convergent operators in Ukraine’s telecoms trio, Kyivstar’s chief executive told Reuters on Thursday, as the war with Russia weighs on the resilience of mobile service providers.
