VimpelCom and related parties have announced the completion of a merger transaction between its subsidiary Mobilink with Abu Dhabi’s Warid Telecom. Under the deal that was signed last November to combine the two Operators in Pakistan, Mobilink is taking up 100% of Warid’s shares, while Dhabi Group will be acquiring 15% of the shares of Mobilink.
With the completion of the merger transaction, Mobilink now enters the next major phase of its transformation and CEO Jeffrey Hedberg will hand over his role to Aamir Ibrahim, currently Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy CEO of Mobilink. The combined entity will be the leading telecommunications provider of 2G, 3G and LTE services in Pakistan, serving a total of over 50 milion customers.
The transaction is reported to create capex and opex synergies with a net present value of approximately USD 500 million.
Mobilink and Warid is expected to benefit from VimpelCom’s USD 1 billion investment into building one of the largest and most ambitious IT infrastructures in the industry. The Group’s new digital systems will enable a faster roll-out of new local products and services, particularly in the areas of mobile entertainment, communications, the Internet of Things, and mobile financial services.
Jean-Yves Charlier, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom
VimpelCom continues to make significant progress against its transformation program. This market consolidation represents a further step in our strategy to strengthen our position in the markets in which we operate.
Jeffrey Hedberg, Chief Executive Officer of Mobilink
Today we are delighted to bring Mobilink and Warid together. Personally, it has been an exciting and rewarding journey and I will look back with deep pride at how our Mobilink team has worked tirelessly through this rapid turnaround to make the company so successful.
