Millicom confirms Liberty buyout talks
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 15 January 2019

Latin American and African cable and mobile services provider Millicom has substantiated reports that it has received a preliminary highly conditional non-binding proposal from Liberty Latin America in relation to an offer for all shares in the company.

Founded in 1992 and officially registered in Luxembourg, Millicom provides digital lifestyle services through its principal brand, Tigo. Its operating subsidiaries and joint ventures employ more than 19,000 people and provide mobile services to approximately 51 million customers, with a cable footprint of more than 9 million homes passed. In April 2018, Millicom launched Tigo One TV in Costa Rica, kicking off the expansion of next-gen TV services across Latin America.

The TiVo-based hybrid service integrates linear content from Tigo’s pay-TV catalogue with over-the-top (OTT) and video-on-demand (VOD) platforms such as Crackle, YouTube, FOX and HBO.
Even though it confirmed that talks with Liberty had taken place, Millicom warned that there was no certainty that a transaction would materialise nor as to the terms, timing or form of any possible transaction.

For its part to date, Liberty Latin America simply recognised the statement issued by Millicom and confirmed that it had indeed submitted a preliminary, highly-conditional, non-binding proposal regarding a possible transaction. It too stressed that there was no assurance that any transaction would proceed or what the deal terms would be. It added that it did not intend to make any further comment until such time as a definitive decision has been made.