Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Bahrain Telecommunications Co., or Batelco, on Wednesday said it had completed the acquisition of the Monaco and Islands business division of telco Cable & Wireless Communications PLC (CWC.LN) for a total consideration of $570 million.
The deal, which was first announced in December, has now satisfied all necessary regulatory approvals and ownership of the assets has now been transferred to Batelco, the company said in an emailed statement.
Batelco acquired the entire CWC interest in Dhiraagu in the Maldives, Sure in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man and the CWC operations in the Falkland Islands, St Helena, Ascension and Diego Garcia, the statement said. Batelco also bought a 25% shareholding in Compagnie Mongasque de Communications SAM, which holds CWC's 55% interest in Monaco Telecom, the statement added.
"Batelco Group is very pleased to formalise this transaction which will see the group emerge as a communications player of global relevance and Bahrain's most diversified international company," Shaikh Hamad bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, chairman of Batelco Group, said in the statement.
The two parties have also agreed that at some stage Batelco can buy a controlling interest in Monaco Telecom for an additional $345 million. When first announced in December, Batelco said the deal was worth $680 million.
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-04-13 1249GMT
