Regulatory clearance for Mobitel-Hutch deal delayed over price

The takeover of cellco Hutchison Telecommunications Lanka (Hutch) by Mobitel, the cellular division of state-controlled Sri Lanka Telecommunications (SLT), which was agreed in February, is still awaiting regulatory clearance because of disagreements over the purchase price, Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times reports, quoting an unnamed official source. The Treasury has expressed its reservations on the purchase price agreed between the two mobile operators, which according to the source was USD132 million, USD32 million higher than a ‘ceiling’ level of USD100 million; rival operator Dialog Axiata is reported to have offered a lower price of USD78 million for Hutch.