MTN Group Sells 50% Stake in Cypriot Operator

South Africa''s MTN Group has agreed to sell half of its holding in its Cypriot mobile operator, Areeba - which trades as MTN Cyprus - to Amaracos Holding for an undisclosed amount. Amaracos Holding is 51% controlled by Shacolas Group’s Cyprus Trading Corporation and 49% by Germanos Cyprus Ltd.

The two companies will form a new joint venture company which will be 50:50 owned by MTN and Amaracos, with MTN continuing to manage the network while Amaracos will provide local marketing expertise.

As part of the deal, MTN Cyprus is to buy the retail outlets operated by Germanos as well as a local ISP, Otenet.

MTN Group President and CEO, Mr Phuthuma Nhleko, says: “This transaction is intended to broaden the ownership of MTN Cyprus and further reaffirms MTN’s commitment to enabling greater local representation. MTN Cyprus will now have a wider distribution platform as well as be able to provide fully converged telecommunications services.”

Last month, MTN Cyprus launched a HSDPA upgrade on its network. At present, the service is only available in the Southern Cypriot capital, Nicosia.

MTN Cyprus, having launched services in late 2004 ended last year with some 113,000 subscribers and according to the Mobile World database, a market share of 12%. Incumbent operator, CYTA takes the remainder of the customer base.



Source:cellular-news