Millicom has agreed to acquire TV Cable Paraná for an undisclosed price. The target is the leading cable TV provider in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second largest city.
Millicom (STO:MIC) has agreed to acquire TV Cable Paraná for an undisclosed price. The target is the leading cable TV provider in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second largest city.
Millicom said its Tigo Star brand already provides pay-TV and broadband in most other urban regions in Paraguay. Furthermore, it is deploying and modernising fixed and mobile networks to meet increasing internet demand.
TV Cable Paraná covers around 40,000 homes passed with approximately 15,000 clients.
Millicom CEO Mauricio Ramos (pictured) said: “This acquisition is an example of an investment that adds value to our core business and which will deliver multiple post-merger synergies, leveraging our existing assets in Paraguay such as our network, our customer base and our content. Our stated strategy is to be one of the major players in cable TV in our markets and the addition of this asset will further extend our cable TV footprint into the geographically desirable eastern city of Ciudad del Este.”
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.
Millicom, which says it is Latin America’s seventh largest pay-TV and broadband operator, has said it aims to increase its current reach of 7.5 million homes passed to 10 million by 2017, targeting a US$2bn consumer cable business and a position as the region’s second largest cable TV operator outside of Brazil.
It provides residential cable services in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia and Colombia; and DTH services in Bolivia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras.
The company acquired broadcasters including Cablevision in Paraguay and Multivision in Bolivia, and completed a merger with Colombian cable TV service UNE.