According to our sources at Storyline, Veon the largest cellular provider in Pakistan has accepted an offer for the sale of its telecom towers in the South Asian nation from a group that includes the Pakistani TPL REIT Management Company and the UAE’s TASC Towers Holding Limited.
In November, the Phone Tower Infrastructure Company, which owns and operates about 10,500 active towers in Pakistan received an offer from the TPL REIT Management Company (RMC) and TASC Towers, a telecom tower operator-based company in the UAE.
Earlier this week, TPL announced that the parent of one of Pakistan’s largest telecom tower operators had “conditionally accepted the offer… for the acquisition of their subsidiary (Telecom Tower Infrastructure Company), which manages and owns over 10,500 telecom towers.”
If it happens the sale of towers estimated to be worth over $600 million would be Pakistan’s largest trade since 2011.
On Monday, December 19, Veon announced that it was moving toward an “asset-light model” for its operations and that talks to sell out Pakistan was still in progress.
A Veon representative responded in writing to an Arab News inquiry, “In keeping with its strategy, Veon and its operating companies are in transition toward an asset-light model for its operations and the firm has previously signaled its interest in selling its towers business in Pakistan.”
There are currently negotiations taking place thus Veon is unable to provide any further updates at this moment.
Veon announced the successful completion of the $957 million sale of its Russian tower assets to Service-Telecom in December 2021. While the corporation still has some 30,000 towers in several nations, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan, it sold 15,000 towers in Russia.
Veon successfully completed the $273 million purchase of a 15% minority investment from the Dhabi Group in Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL), the operating company of Jazz, in March 2021.
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the PMCL is now the leading mobile phone operator in Pakistan with a 38.55 percent market share, followed by Telenor, which has a 25.2 percent market share (PTA).
However, Veon has clearly refuted the idea of considering selling any assets other than its Pakistani tower business.
The goal of the selling (of towers) is to pursue the asset-light business model that the firm has already laid out, the Veon spokesman told Arab News.
TPL a Pakistani company that runs a variety of industries, including GPS tracking and property management, stated in September that it had formed a strategic alliance with TASC Towers with the purpose of acquiring the telecom tower industry.
TASC Towers Holding Limited was established in 2017 and owns, constructs, and runs mobile communication towers in four nations, including the UAE. Over 15,000 towers have been installed or managed by the firm.
TPL RMC plans to raise $500 million through an investment trust, the largest such fundraising in Pakistan and anticipates receiving 60% of the capital from international investors.
In the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the company trades under the name TPL Investment Management.
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