Norwegian shipping group Rasmussen has invested NOK300 million (USD37.98 million) in purchasing a 29.5% stake in AINMT Holdings, the parent of wireless broadband network operators Ice.net (Norway), Net 1 Denmark and Net 1 Sweden, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK reports on its website. CEO of the investing company, Dag Rasmussen, was quoted as saying that the aim is to make Ice into Norway’s third largest operator. NRK adds that other local investors to take smaller stakes in AINMT include Pareto (NOK67 million), Commenda (NOK53 million), Leif Hubert (NOK25 million) and Bjarne Skeie (NOK10 million).
In April 2015 AINMT announced on its website the successful completion of a share issue worth USD82.5 million to selected institutional and professional investors, with the aim of investing the proceeds back into the company’s triple-country operations.
February 2015 saw some important developments for AINMT in Norway, as Ice.net secured a deal to acquire certain mobile assets of Tele2/Network Norway including cellular customers, as a by-product of TeliaSonera’s (NetCom’s) takeover of Tele2 Norway. Simultaneously Ice.net signed a national roaming agreement with GSM/W-CDMA/LTE network operator NetCom. Meanwhile, Ice.net – which currently operates nationwide wireless broadband services based on CDMA-450 technology – is expected to launch 4G LTE-450 services in Q3 2015, with Danish and Swedish LTE-450 launches expected to follow in due course, TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes.
AINMT Holdings is majority controlled by US-based Access Industries.