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CCP issued conditional nod for Vimpelcom, Wind Telecom merger
19 March 2011: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has granted conditional approval to a cross-border acquisition of Wind Telecom by Vimpelcom Ltd. after undertaking Phase-II review of the transaction to address the competition concerns. The VimpelCom submitted a pre-merger application with CCP regarding the proposed acquisition of Wind Telecom S.p.A.
The target Wind Telecom indirectly holds approx. 51.7 percent shares in Orascom Telecom Holdings, S.A.E (OTH), an Egyptian company, which has a 100 percent owned subsidiary in Pakistan, Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL) and various other subsidiaries operating in telecommunications and related sectors in Pakistan.
The transaction involves an amalgamation of two leading international telecommunication groups, Vimpelcom and Wind Telecom which shall create the world's sixth largest mobile telecommunication carrier measured by the number of subscribers. The acquisition of Wind Telecom by Vimplecom will result in an indirect change of control of OTH, and its subsidiaries in Pakistan; the fact that Telenor (Norway) will have 31.7 percent equity shares and 25 percent voting shares in Vimplecom after the transaction gets consummated, raise competition concerns, which prompted CCP to open the Phase-II review of the transactions.
Source: Business Recorder