Millicom International Cellular: Millicom Acquires Colombia Movil.STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Millicom International Cellular S.A. ("Millicom") (Nasdaq Stock Market Nasdaq stock market The first electronic stock market listing over 5000 companies. The Nasdaq stock market comprises two separate markets, namely the Nasdaq National Market, which trades large, active securities and the Nasdaq Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies. : MICC MICC Malaysia International Conference on Communications MICC Maltese Italian Chamber of Commerce MICC Main Instrumentation and Controls Contractor MICC Major Incident Control Centre (UK) MICC Mineral Insulated Copper Covered , Stockholmsborsen: MIC), today announces that it has acquired control of Colombia Movil S.A. E.S.P., the third mobile operator in Colombia, which operates under the Ola brand. Ola today has an estimated 9% market share in a country of over 43 million people. Millicom is acquiring 21.6 million new shares of Colombia Movil, which represents a 50% plus 1 share controlling stake in the Company, for a consideration of US$125 million. Including this initial equity contribution, Millicom expects to invest a total of approximately $200 million of new equity in Colombia Movil within the next three years. Millicom's investment will be fully funded by way of new debt in another wholly owned Millicom Latin American subsidiary, so that Millicom will not be drawing down its current Corporate cash reserves Cash reserves See: Cash investments cash reserves Investment funds that are held in short-term assets such as Treasury bills and certificates of deposit until more permanent investment opportunities are available. for this investment. As a result of this acquisition, Ola's founding shareholders, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota S Bo·go·tá The capital and largest city of Colombia, in the central part of the country on a high plain in the eastern Andes. It was a center of Chibcha culture before the Spanish established a settlement in 1538. Population: 6,980,000. .A. E.S.P. and EPM EPM equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. Telecomunicaciones S.A. E.S.P., will retain an interest of 50% minus 1 share minority stake. Millicom will appoint four out of the seven board members and will have day-to-day management control of the business. Millicom will treat Colombia Movil as a subsidiary and will fully consolidate the subsidiary while taking into account the 50% minus 1 share minority interest as a minority in the profit and loss. Marc Beuls, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , commented: "The purchase of Colombia Movil doubles Millicom's population under license in our highly successful Latin American region. Colombia Movil will be the platform from which Millicom will look to introduce its 'triple A' business strategy based on 'Affordability, Accessibility and Availability', which has enabled Millicom to compete successfully across Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. . Having previously managed a successful regional operation in Colombia for 8 years between 1994-2002, we now believe that we can build substantial value in Ola by applying our Latin American skills and experience. Following a successful implementation of our 'triple A' strategy, we would expect the business to start contributing to Millicom's EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become during 2007". Company Information on Colombia Movil: Colombia Movil S.A. E.S.P. was established on January 24th, 2003 by two State owned companies Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota S.A. E.S.P. and Empresas Publicas de Medellin E.S.P., who control the fixed line businesses in their respective cities. It has a 10 year renewable nationwide GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) A digital cellular phone technology based on TDMA that is the predominant system in Europe, but also used worldwide. Developed in the 1980s, GSM was first deployed in seven European countries in 1992. 1900 MHZ licence. It competes against two other operators controlled by Telefonica and America Movil. When translated into IFRS IFRS International Financial Reporting Standard(s) IFRS Inter Frame Relay Service IFRS Indiana Facilities Registry System , Colombia Movil reported revenues of approximately US$130m for the first 6 months of 2006 and subscribers of over 2 million. Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications investor with cellular operations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. It currently has cellular operations and licenses in 17 countries. The Group's cellular operations have a combined population under license of approximately 433 million people. This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. " with respect to Millicom's expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information. It is important to note that Millicom's actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors. Please refer to the documents that Millicom has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Millicom's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Millicom on the date hereof. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Millicom International Cellular S.A., any Millicom International Cellular S.A members or persons acting on Millicom's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Millicom does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Visit our web site at: www.millicom.com This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net |
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