Veon announced it completed the sale of its 49% stake in Kazakh wholesale infrastructure company TNS+ for US$137.5 million following regulatory approval.
In a statement, the Amsterdam-based operator group said it sold its shares to joint-venture partner DAR Group. Its Beeline Kazakhstan unit will secure long-term commercial contracts with TNS+ to continue tapping into infrastructure for its commercial services.
Veon signed an agreement for the sale back in May to accelerate its “asset-light” strategy. TNS+ has over 14,000km of fibre cables across Kazakhstan.
“Completion of this sale enables Beeline Kazakhstan to continue to access the robust wholesale infrastructure offered by TNS+ while strengthening our Kazakh digital operator’s focus on building its portfolio of connected consumer and enterprise services.
“Beeline Kazakhstan offers exciting digital services such as Simply, Izi, Hitter and BeeTV, and is a key partner in developing Kazakhstan’s local-language AI large language model, which will power the development of new, locally relevant AI-powered tools in Kazakhstan. We are thrilled to deepen our services to the Kazakh economy in these areas,” said Veon Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu (pictured).
This move will also enable the company to execute its new global strategy by expanding into new geographies and introducing cutting-edge digital products. We will continue to invest in Kazakhstan's telecom infrastructure and provide high-quality services to our customers, while maintaining TNS+’s leadership in data transit,” added DAR Group CEO and founder Alidar Utemuratov.
