About a month ago, it became known that Turkcell is selling the Ukrainian telecommunications operator lifecell to the French company NJJ Capital. The value of the deal was not disclosed at the time. But now a publication in Bloomberg shed light on her.

French billionaire Xavier Niel said that his investment company NJJ Capital agreed to pay $500 million for the Ukrainian operator lifecell. We will remind you that at the time of announcing the deal, the lifecell shares were nominally worth UAH 12.7 billion. ($333.4 million).

Xavier Nyel is already engaged in telecommunications operations in neighboring Poland through the mobile operator Iliad (Free brand). As Niel said at a meeting with the Paris Press Association for business journalists, the high volume of roaming traffic between the countries means the deal makes sense. He noted that the price was “cheap” compared to the profit of the Ukrainian operator Lifecell.

Under the terms of the agreement, NJJ Capital will gain control over Lifecell LLC, Global Bilgy LLC, and Ukrtower LLC. Nyel said the deal is pending review by regulators, including Ukraine’s antimonopoly agency. Recently, it became known that the Antimonopoly Committee returned the application for the purchase of lifecell to NJJ Capital. According to Forbes, AMCU has already received repeated applications from DVL Telecom, which is part of the NJJ group, to acquire a controlling stake in Lifecell LLC, Global Bilgi LLC, and Ukrtower LLC.