MONTREAL-Bell Canada International (BCI) said it signed an agreement with Taiwan Cement Corp. to sell its 20-percent minority interest in KG Telecom, a Taiwanese PCS provider, for US$1.71 per share, generating gross proceeds of about Canadian $790 million (US$534 million).
BCI announced a joint venture with Mexico’s TelMex and U.S.-based SBC Communications earlier this year to target Latin American telecom assets.
“During the past nine months, BCI has signed agreements to sell all our Asian assets, generating total gross proceeds of Canadian $2.3 billion and a net gain of Canadian $1.6 billion, almost a four-fold increase in the value of our original cash investment in these Asian ventures,” said BCI President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis Tanguay. “As previously announced, our strategy going forward is to focus on Latin American growth opportunities.”
Taiwan Cement is a major company of the Koo Group, the largest shareholder of KG Telecom.
KG Telecom, operating a GSM network, serves 1.7 million subscribers in Taiwan, said BCI.
