Norway's Telenor exits Myanmar, sells stake to military-linked firm

Kolkata, July 9 Norwegian telecom behemoth Telenor has sold off its Myanmar operations to the Lebanese investment firm M1 Group, a firm now on the Burma Campaign UKs 'Dirty List' in 2019 for business ties with the country's brutal military.

Late on Thursday, Telenor announced that it has sold its mobile operations in Myanmar to M1 group for $105 million.

A Telenor statement said that M1 Group is acquiring all of its shares in Myanmar and will continue the current operation.

"Over the past few months, the situation in Myanmar has become increasingly challenging for Telenor for people, security, regulatory and compliance reasons," Sigve Brekke, president and CEO of Telenor Group, said in the statement.

"We have evaluated all options and believe a sale of the company is the best possible solution in this situation," he added.

The sale came a few days after Telenor Myanmar said it was looking at options in the country, a day after media reports that it had hired global banking giant Citibank to handle the divestment.

The M1 group has been on Burma Campaign UK's Dirty List since August 2019 after it became the major shareholder in Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar.

This company, that has nearly 4,000 telecom towers across the country, works for the military-owned Mytel telecom operator.

International companies conducting business with the Myanmar military or involved in projects that have resulted in human rights violations or environmental destruction have been added to the Dirty List.

The company was one of four telecom operators in Myanmar, alongside Qatar-owned Oredoo, the military-backed Mytel and the state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

Telenor reported that its mobile subscriber base had grown by 5 million in the quarter, including 2 million added in Myanmar, to reach 187 million at the end of the quarter.

But it reported a net loss of 3,889 million Norwegian kronor ($468 million) for the first quarter of the year, compared with a profit of 698 kronor ($84 million) in the same period of 2020.

"Since the military coup on February 1, 2021, Telenor's focus has been on the safety and security of our employees, access to services for customers and continued transparency," said Brekke.

"Prolonged mobile internet restrictions have severely impacted the people of Myanmar and the country's economy, illustrating the importance of connectivity services."

Brekke, who was head of Telenor's Asian region in 2013 when it won one of two Myanmar licences, added: "Telenor calls on the authorities to immediately reinstate unimpeded communications and respect the right to freedom of expression and human rights.

"Due to the worsening of economic and business environment outlook and a deteriorating security and human rights situation, we see limited prospects of improvement going forward."

Based on this, we have fully impaired Telenor Myanmar with an amount of $782 million in the quarter, he said.

Decrease in operating profit due to the impairment of Telenor Myanmar and higher taxes were only partly offset by positive development in net financial items, said the company.

In Myanmar, "due to the worsening of economic and business environment outlook and a deteriorating security and human rights situation, we see limited prospects of improvement going forward".

Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo both won a strong competition in 2013 for Myanmar's new licences.

Since then the country has awarded two further licences: one to MPT-KSGM, a partnership of Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and KSGM, whose ultimate ownership is held by KDDI and Sumitomo; and the other to Mytel, 48 per cent owned by the army, which seized power back from the democratically elected government earlier this year, in a joint venture with Viettel, which is controlled by Vietnam's Ministry of Defence.

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