CTC buys 50 per cent stake in MTN

THE MTN Group has announced that in a series of stages it will dispose of 50 per cent of its shareholding in Areeba Limited, trading as MTN Cyprus, to Amaracos Holding (CTC&PG) Limited.

Amaracos is a company owned by Shacolas Group’s Cyprus Trading Corporation (51 per cent), and Germanos Cyprus Ltd (49 per cent).

MTN Group and Amaracos Holding will enter a joint-venture agreement, with MTN continuing to be responsible for managing the operations of MTN Cyprus and Amaracos contributing significant local insight into the Cypriot market.

MTN Cyprus will also acquire 100 per cent of the share capital of Infotel Ltd, a handset retailer in Cyprus, trading as Germanos, as well as 100 per cent of the share capital of Otenet (Cyprus) Ltd, an internet service provider (ISP) in Cyprus.

These acquisitions will offer strong distribution support to MTN Cyprus as well as enable MTN Cyprus to offer fully converged telecommunications services to the Cypriot market.

As at March 31, 2008, MTN Cyprus recorded 120 000 subscribers with an estimated market share of 16 per cent.

MTN Group President and CEO, Phuthuma Nhleko, said: “This transaction is intended to broaden the ownership of MTN Cyprus and further reaffirms MTN’s commitment to enabling greater local representation. MTN Cyprus will now have a wider distribution platform as well as be able to provide fully converged telecommunications services.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.