Axiata nears US$1b deal for Veon's Pakistan towers

Kuala Lumpur

VEON Ltd is in advanced talks to sell wireless towers in Pakistan to a unit of Axiata Group Bhd, the biggest Malaysian mobile operator.

Axiata's infrastructure arm, Edotco Group Sdn, plans to announce an agreement as soon as this week that could value the towers at about US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The purchase of about 13,000 towers will make Edotco the biggest independent telecommunications tower operator in the South Asian nation, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.