Africell Holding SAL Completes Acquisition of Millicom Sierra Leone

Africell Holding SAL, a mobile telecommunications company and a subsidiary of the Lebanese telecommunications company Lintel Holding, has reportedly completed the acquisition of Millicom Limited following the final regulatory approval.

Millicom (News - Alert) is a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular SA, a provider of prepaid cellular telephony services to more than 30 million customers in 16 emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Millicom operates under the brand name Tigo, which has introduced lots of new services to customers including GPRS/EDGE, MMS, and Call music.

In July Africell Holding SAL announced that it had signed an agreement with Millicom International Cellular (News - Alert) SA, regarding the acquisition of Millicom Ltd, Millicom’s GSM operations in Sierra Leone.

 

Africell Holding SAL, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Africell (Sierra Lone) Limited has been operating in Sierra Leone since 2005. Africell Holding currently operates two GSM networks; In Gambia and Sierra Leone, both are market share leaders with respectively 65 percent and 50 percent of the market. This acquisition and the ensuing merger of the two entities is said to further consolidate Africell’s leading market share to more than 55 percent of the total GSM telephony market in Sierra Leone.

 

A third operation is in the planning as the group has obtained a license to operate a GSM network in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Lintel group currently employs around 1,500 between its GSM operations and its telecom turn-key contractor, Linfra, which operates in 14 countries across the MENA and Africa.