Millicom Mulls Selling, Closing Paktel"

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Millicom International Cellular, Monday said that it's considering selling or closing its Pakistani business Paktel Limited.

The company said that it has significant doubts about the ability of Paktel to generate returns on investment at the levels required by Millicom.

Millicom said that it can't quantify the financial impact of a sale or a closure, but believes the loss resulting from either move would be lower than the loss the company would post in 2007 and 2008 if Millicom were to continue to fund Paktel as a going concern.

Millicom said it has been mulling significant investments to build market share in Pakistan but that the return on those investments have been overshadowed by the challenging business conditions in the Pakistan mobile telephony market and frequency interference issues.

Paktel has been granted additional 1800 megahertz spectrum to resolve these issues but the grant of such spectrum wasn't permanent.

As part of an overall discussion with the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, or PTA, to resolve these interference issues permanently, Millicom said that Paktel has requested a deferral of the latest installment of its license fee of $29.1 million which the PTA hasn't granted.

Millicom said that it has appointed Lazard as its financial advisor.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 13th November 2006