Zambia’s Competition Commission approved the takeover of Zain’s unit in the country by Bharti Airtel Ltd., it said.
The deal was approved by the commission’s board at a meeting yesterday and should be completed within six months, the Commission said in an e-mailed statement today.
Zain Zambia had 3.1 million customers as of December 2009, the company said on Feb. 23.
Mobile Telecommunications Co., which runs the Zain network, agreed March 30 to sell its assets in 15 African countries to Bharti for $9 billion.
Gabon’s government said last month it won’t block the acquisition of the Zain unit in the country. The Republic of Congo said April 13 it may block the deal in its country because Zain failed to provide advance notification.
–Editors: Emily Bowers, Antony Sguazzin
To contact the reporter on this story: Obert Simwanza in Lusaka via Johannesburg at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.
[Bloomberg]
Thank you GRZ. Now Immigration department, dont become ignorant and start handing out work permits to the new owners so they can bring unqualified people to run this Company. Immigration and GRZ should be admant that positions be zambianized and not hand work permits right left and center.
Damn,u think they care in Zed,as long as these damned hell-bound politicians have gotten their cuts. They will be Indians coming with CCNA/CCNP/Sun Certifications/EMC and the like to do all the work here,Zambian Engineers will work as mere technicians.
No wonder so many highly technical Zambians have left the country to go and work where they not only respect their knowledge and abilities,but also pay them accordingly .
When Zain took over Celtel they made it clear that they had would not pay a dividend for 5 years and instead would emback on network investment. For Zambian small time shareholders this saw their investment erode below the face value and it was difficult to trade at a loss. I am sure there were no institutional investors in this as it was very unattractive. Can ZCC put it a condition that those aspiring to take over should have an attractive dividend policy so as to grow our stock market in Zambia? Or else block the takeover bid.
The s e c needs to ensure that zambians get a fair return on investment as the offer made by airtel is rediculous for those investor s who bought at i p o