The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has approved Pakistan Telecommunications Limited\u2019s (PTCL) acquisition of mobile carrier Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers shareholdings, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
According to the telecommunication company\u2019s website, one of its subsidiaries is mobile carrier Ufone. As part of the deal, Telenor and Ufone will merge.<\/p>\n
According to the press release, the merger was announced today at a press conference at the CCP\u2019s head office. CCP Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu, CCP Registrar and Head of Legal Ambreen Abbasi and members Salman Amin and Shahzad Hussain shared the key highlights of the agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey explained that [the] CCP conducted a comprehensive review of the merger transaction,\u201d the press release read. \u201cThe review examined market structure, concentration levels, efficiencies, and potential competition risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Sidhu emphasised that the commission\u2019s decision \u201censures a level playing field for all telecom operators and safeguards consumer interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe merger aims to enhance service quality, expand product offerings and accelerate technological innovation, including the rollout of 5G,\u201d he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CCP [has] studied various international precedents, including orders from the United States, United Kingdom and European Union, involving similar transactions before granting approval.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the press release, Abbasi explained that the assessment considered possibly lessening competition in the relevant sub-markets, market shares and efficiency claims. She underlined that the merger was approved conditionally, with safeguards designed to prevent anti-competitive conduct.<\/p>\n
Some of the key conditions listed in the press release were:<\/p>\n
PTCL and the merged entity will maintain separate boards and independent management structures.
\nChief executive officers and senior management must meet strict competency and integrity requirements, with UAE-based telecom company Etisalat ensuring professional leadership.
\nAn independent third-party will monitor compliance, audit transactions, and submit quarterly reports to CCP for five years.
\nRelated party transactions and cross-subsidisation will be prohibited unless conducted competitively and at arm\u2019s length.
\nNon-discriminatory access will be applied to capacity and infrastructure for all operators. PTCL and MergeCo shall submit all its existing and future Reference Interconnect Offers (RIO) to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) for approval. PTCL shall offer interconnection to all operators in accordance with RIO as approved by the PTA.
\nPTCL shall seek the PTA\u2019s approval for its wholesale pricing structure in relation to IP Bandwidth, LDI, Domestic Leased Line and telecom infrastructure services provided to PTA licensees, as well as associated companies including MergeCo. PTCL shall not set predatory retail prices.
\nMandatory compliance will be ensured with service quality standards, innovation policies and PTA tariff approvals.
\nPTCL and Telenor must demonstrate that claimed efficiencies are passed on to consumers through better services, pricing and infrastructure investments.
\nThe CCP reserves the right to direct divestiture of assets or business segments in case of future violations.
\nIn the press release, Amin was quoted as saying that these conditions are specifically aimed at preventing favouritism, predatory pricing and barriers to market entry, while ensuring continued regulatory oversight by the CCP and PTA.<\/p>\n
Last week, the CCP raised concerns over PTCL\u2019s non-cooperation and delay in providing critical information for evaluating the merger, with the watchdog citing potential competition risks and warned of cross-subsidisation between PTCL and Ufone, both of which operate under joint management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has approved Pakistan Telecommunications Limited\u2019s (PTCL) acquisition of mobile carrier Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers shareholdings, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. According to the telecommunication company\u2019s website, one of its subsidiaries is mobile carrier Ufone. As part of the deal, Telenor and Ufone will merge. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12346,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions\/12346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}