AMCU allows an Azerbaijani operator to acquire Vodafone Ukraine

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed the Azerbaijani company Bakcell to acquire the telecom operator Vodafone Ukraine. The head of the AMCU Yuriy Terentyev told this to Ekonomichna Pravda.

The Antimonopoly Committee granted permission to Bakcell LLC (Baku, Azerbaijan) for the indirect acquisition of shares of Preludium B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), which ensures that the company’s supreme management body has more than 50% of the votes.

This will allow the Azerbaijani company to acquire indirect control over the Ukrainian mobile operator known under the Vodafone brand.

From a message on the AMCU website.

For the first time, they started talking about the acquisition of Vodafone Ukraine in early October. Back then, the Azerbaijani company first applied to the AMCU. Experts evaluated the potential deal at USD 1.2 – 1.3 billion.

• Bakcell is a mobile operator and a leading provider of mobile Internet in Azerbaijan. The company was founded in 1994 as a joint venture between the state and the Israeli company GTIB.
• Bakcell network includes 7,500 base stations, which cover 93% of the country. The company serves more than 3 million customers (Vodafone Ukraine has 19.7 million ones).