On July 25, the Antimonopoly Committee approved an application for the purchase of the Ukrainian operator lifecell from the French DVL Telecom, Forbes writes.
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French billionaire Xavier Niel is ready to buy the operator for $525 million. This is potentially the largest agreement of the decade together with the purchase of the fixed-line Internet provider Datagroup-Volia.
On July 25, the AMCU reviewed an application for DVL Telecom to gain control over Global Bilgi LLC, Lifecell, and Ukrtower. The AMCU’s first deadline for reviewing the application ended on July 18.
Following the meeting, the Committee approved the acquisition of the companies.
DVL Telecom is a subsidiary of the French investment company NJJ Capital, owned by billionaire Xavier Niel. DVL is an abbreviation for the names of Datagroup, Volia, and lifecell, which will merge into one company after the deal is completed.
The acquisition of lifecell and Datagroup-Volia will potentially be one of the largest M&A deals in Ukraine over the past decade. French billionaire Niel is ready to pay $525 million for the third largest operator by number of subscribers.
The amount of the deal to acquire Datagroup-Volia could be $120 million, Forbes wrote earlier. CEO of the fixed-line Internet provider Datagroup-Volia and head of the future merged company Mykhailo Shelemba called this estimate “modest” in an interview with Forbes.
According to the results of 2023, lifecell's income increased by 24.4% to UAH 11.7 billion, profit reached UAH 2.5 billion against UAH 972.3 million a year earlier. The number of subscribers at the end of 2023 was 11.7 million.
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