Millicom International Cellular SA (MICCF)

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Millicom International Cellular: Purchase of Partners' Shareholdings in Joint Ventures
Friday March 13, 2009, 12:59 pm EDT
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NEW YORK & STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Millicom International Cellular S.A. (NASDAQ:MICC - News)(STO:MIC), the global telecommunications company, today announces that it has purchased the remaining shares in two joint ventures, Navega in Central America and its business in Chad, for a proportional total of $60 million.

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{"s" : "micc","k" : "c10,l10,p20,t10","o" : "","j" : ""} Millicom’s joint venture Comcel in Guatemala now owns 100% of Navega and this business fully controls the fiber optic backbone rings for Millicom’s mobile businesses in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Comcel will finance the acquisition locally in Guatemala. Mario Zanotti, Chief Officer Latin America, commented, “Comcel and its partners created Navega in 2000 to provide our mobile businesses in Central America with fiber optic rings for backhaul and to provide access to submarine cables and the internet “cloud”. By taking full control of the Navega business, Millicom will be able to ensure the quality and the timely availability for backbone transmission capacity for its three mobile businesses to benefit our end customer. This transaction will also benefit us by supporting the growing demand for access to the Internet as we expand our 3G broadband services”.

Millicom has also reached agreement on the purchase of the remaining 12.5% in its joint venture in Chad. This business had 541,000 subscribers at Q4, 2008 and is today the number two operator in Chad with a 45% market share in a country with a mobile penetration of only 12% but a population of 10 million.

Mikael Grahne, Chief Executive, commented: “I am pleased that we have finalized these two purchases which we have been working on for some time. We continue to buy out the shareholdings of our partners in our operations when it brings incremental value to our own shareholders to do so.”

Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications group with mobile telephony operations in 16 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. It also operates cable and broadband businesses in five countries in Central America. The Group’s mobile operations have a combined population under license of approximately 291 million people.

This press release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” 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. employees or representatives 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.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com


Contact:
Millicom International Cellular S.A., Luxembourg
Mikael Grahne
President and Chief Executive Officer
or
Francois-Xavier Roger
Chief Financial Officer
or
Shared Value Ltd, London
Andrew Best
Investor Relations
Telephone: [phone] / [phone]
Visit our web site at http://www.millicom.com