Telenor’s sale of Myanmar unit to M1 sidelined over junta’s opposition

Myanmar’s military junta has soured on Telenor’s proposed sale of its enterprise inside the nation to Lebanon’s M1 Group, compelling the Norwegian telecoms agency to seek for totally different customers, based mostly on three people conscious of the regime’s pondering.

Whereas the military-controlled telecoms ministry has not publicly dominated out the proposed $105m sale to M1, the parents suggested the Financial Events that the regime wanted Telenor to advertise to a Myanmar-controlled agency. Some native telecoms and totally different firms have signalled their curiosity.

“Everyone seems to be conscious of they [the military] have made the selection to reject the sale, nevertheless they haven’t launched it,” talked about one commerce govt, who requested to not be named because of the sensitivity of the deal and the business environment in Myanmar. “Telenor, determining this, is prudently considering alternate choices.”

The company, which is 54 per cent owned by the Norwegian authorities, talked about in response to questions on whether or not or not it was considering totally different customers: “Telenor stays to be awaiting the Myanmar authority’s formal response.”

M1 talked about it couldn’t comment “previous confirming that the strategy stays to be ongoing”.

Telenor has been under rising stress from rights groups over its protracted effort to exit Myanmar inside the wake of a military coup in February that made its place increasingly more untenable.

The company wrote off its entire $782m investment inside the nation in May. In July, it launched the sale of its native belongings to M1, which was based mostly by Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati and his brother Taha Mikati.

Sigve Brekke, Telenor’s chief govt, suggested the FT in July that it confronted a battle over discover ways to perform inside the nation “with [a] military dictatorship with out jeopardising our values”.

The regime in Myanmar has killed or jailed lots of and compelled telecoms firms to restrict internet service, pressured their workers and demanded they arrange intercept instruments — a switch Telenor talked about helped quick its option to depart.

Nevertheless civil society groups in Myanmar argue that Telenor has “irresponsibly disengaged” from the nation and didn’t conduct due diligence or mitigate the potential antagonistic human rights implications of its alternative to advertise its operations to M1.

In newest weeks, as a result of it grew to turn into clear that the junta was planning to axe the sale, some native merchants have been involved with Telenor. “The crux of the matter is that the federal authorities simply isn’t comfortable with M1 being the majority proprietor,” talked about one among many of us conscious of the regime’s pondering.

Yoma Group, the Myanmar conglomerate involved in banking and totally different consumer industries that’s majority owned by tycoon Serge Pun, may very well be inside the stake, talked about one particular person conscious of the matter.

Yoma was a companion with Telenor in Wave Money, an e-wallet service by which the Myanmar agency has been looking for to spice up its stake.

Yoma declined to comment apart from to say that it remained “devoted to Myanmar and continues to spend cash on the nation”, together with: “Now we have now been nice companions with Telenor and proceed to find rising our funding inside the Wave Money three method partnership.”

Myanmar’s military junta spokesperson, Zaw Min Tun, didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Chloe Cornish in Beirut