Mfone assets sold off to pay debts

The court-appointed administrator of bankrupt Cambodian mobile operator Mfone has said that base stations and equipment have been sold off to pay the company’s former employees and creditors, reports the Phnom Penh Post. ‘We agreed to this sale, and we are currently transferring the assets that consist of towers and equipment … [but] it takes time to transfer them,’ Mfone’s administrator Ouk Ry said, without disclosing the identity of the buyers or the sale price. He did, however, reveal that former employees of Mfone should receive their outstanding salaries next month. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Mfone filed a petition for insolvency proceedings in Phnom Penh in January 2013 and subsequently signed an agreement for the transfer of its mobile subscribers to CamGSM (Mobitel/Cellcard). After filing for bankruptcy, it was reported that Mfone owed a combined USD160 million to creditors which are said to include Chinese equipment supplier Huawei Technologies and Norwegian-owned electronics firm Eltek Valere.