Insolvent Mfone owes USD159m

The assets of Mfone, which filed for insolvency proceedings earlier this month, are estimated to be worth USD105 million, while the Cambodian mobile operator owes around USD159 million to a number of creditors, reports the Phnom Penh Post, citing workers who attended a creditors’ meeting. ‘During [the] meeting, we met with all creditors’ representatives from Huawei, NEC, Cambodian Fibre Optic Cable Network, Vatana and Eltek,’ commented employee representative, Prang Vuthy. ‘Most of the creditors agreed with us to withdraw the injunction lawsuit in order to let [court-appointed liquidator] Ouk Ry sell the assets to get the money to pay everyone… not all creditors had agreed, so we will try to meet and negotiate with them,’ he added. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Mfone filed a petition for insolvency proceedings in Phnom Penh in January, after Shenington Investments, a subsidiary of Thai satellite operator Thaicom, failed to complete the sale of all of its shares in Mfone (equivalent to a 100% stake) to local investor INT Management Service (INT). The cellco subsequently signed an agreement for the transfer of its mobile subscribers to CamGSM (Mobitel/Cellcard).