Altimo Buys Sotelco to Enter Cambodian Mobile Telecommunications Market
03 Aug 2007
Altimo, one of the largest international investment companies, acting in the field of mobile and fixed-line telecommunications, with total capitalisation of more than US $20 billion, announces the acquisition of 90 percent of Sotelco, which provides GSM standard telecommunications services in Cambodia.
Sotelco holds licenses to provide a full range of wireless telecommunications services, including GSM 900/1800, Internet, and VoIP standards. It has frequencies between 900 and 1800 MHz, and is licensed to provide WiMax standard services.
Altimo has long stated that part of its strategy has been to invest in telecommunications businesses in South East Asia. The company opened representative offices in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Hanoi (Vietnam) at the end of 2006.
Dmitry Vosianov, Altimo’s Director, Southeast Asia, said:
“We are delighted to have made this acquisition, which is part of our strategy to invest in businesses operating in rapidly growing emerging markets, and to establish ourselves as a major force in the region. The level of mobile penetration rate in Cambodia, at just over 10 percent, is relatively low, so offers an exciting opportunity. When this is combined with annual economic growth of some seven percent per year, we believe the Cambodian mobile telecommunications market has great potential” .
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