Millicom to sell mobile networks

Millicom International Cellular SA, an operator of a mobile-phone network in Ghana, said the entire company may be sold.

Millicom, based in Luxembourg and controlled by Sweden's Kinnevik Investment AB, is ``in advanced discussions and due diligence with a potential purchaser of the entire share capital of the company,'' Millicom said in a Waymaker statement today.

No agreement has been reached, Millicom said. The identity of the potential bidder wasn't disclosed.

China Mobile Communications, the world's biggest mobile- phone company by users, may pay $5.3 billion, or $48 a share, in cash to buy Millicom, the Wall Street Journal reported May 24, citing people familiar with the plan. Rainie Lei, a spokeswoman at China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed unit of China Mobile Communications, declined to comment at the time.

Millicom Chief Financial Officer David Sach said in a May 24 telephone interview that ``hopefully the board will make a decision soon.''

Shares of Millicom rose 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $45.82 on May 26 in the U.S., valuing the company at $4.57 billion.

At the end of March, Millicom had 9.9 million subscribers in 16 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas, an increase of 52 percent from a year earlier.