Vimpelcom Ltd's subsidiary has withdrawn its bid for the controlling shareholdings over Wind Mobile. The unit of the European telecommunications firm had informed the founder and CEO of the Canada based Wind Mobile Anthony Lacavera of the decision.
This comes as a surprise to many market observers as it further creates rippling uncertainty in the future of the recently launched wireless company. The company seeking to bid for Wind was Orascom Telecom, a company based out of Egypt whose majority owner is Vimplecom. The decision on the withdrawal of the bid was done when it withdrew its application to the Canadian regulatory authorities of its earlier petition seeking to increase its voting rights.
In the original plan, Lacavera was set to sell one third stake over Orascom for an undisclosed sum. This though is hinged on the approval of the application for expanded voting rights with the Canadian regulators.
Back in 2009, Orascom had put up the funds for the launch of Wind Mobile. Unfortunately, current rules on ownership constrained the Egyptian firm to retain a minority voting interest. Last year though, Canadian authorities opened up the rules allowing for greater ownership for foreign investors and foster greater competition.
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