French billionaire Xavier Niel’s investment company NJJ Capital is planning to acquire and merge two telecom businesses in Ukraine in what is set to be one of the largest acquisitions in the country’s history, bringing with it significant investment at a time when the war-torn country is struggling to attract foreign investors.
In a joint press release on April 8, NJJ said it had received regulatory approval in March from Ukraine’s antitrust regulator to acquire one of Ukraine’s largest fixed telecom and pay-TV providers Datagroup-Volia.
Following regulatory approval, the company wants to also acquire Turkish-owned Lifecell, Ukraine’s third-largest mobile operator, the press release said.
Once the acquisitions are complete, Niel’s NJJ plans to merge Datagroup-Volia together with Lifecell to form a combined Datagroup-Volia-Lifecell entity, according to the press release.
The total value of the acquisition, including the purchase price and investment over the course of five years, will amount to $1.5 billion, Datagroup-Volia CEO Mykhailo Shelemba told Forbes in an interview published on April 11.
The acquisitions are the first major investments in Ukraine by a new market player since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and one of the most significant investments into the country’s telecommunications sector by a Western investor.
As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on and foreign investment trickles in, the merger is both a positive market signal for would-be private-sector investors and a marked step toward further integration with European markets.