Millicom International Cellular (MIC) has disclosed plans to invest USD750 million in Panama over the next five years. The telco will use the investment to fund ‘cutting-edge network infrastructure, state-of-the-art data centres, spectrum and other services’. In December 2018 Millicom completed the takeover of an 80% stake in Cable Onda for just over USD1.0 billion. It went on to conclude the EUR573 million (USD650 million) acquisition of Telefonica Moviles Panama (Movistar) last month. The latter deal was carried out via Cable Onda.
The press release notes: ‘With the acquisition of Telefonica’s operations in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, Tigo is the only convergent operator in each of its nine Latin American markets. The company has already completed its acquisitions in Nicaragua and Panama and expects to complete the Costa Rican acquisition in the near term. In Panama, the Cable Onda and Movistar teams are joining forces to bring the most comprehensive and convergent fixed and mobile services to customers.’
While it has not yet been formally confirmed, the European group is expected to rebrand the two businesses under its preferred ‘Tigo’ brand name. Cable Onda currently serves 350,000 residential customers, while Movistar is the country’s largest mobile operator, with 1.6 million subscribers.
