On Monday, French billionaire Xavier Niel announced that his investment company, NJJ Capital, agreed to pay $500 million for Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS’s Ukraine units.

The relevant statement was made by Bloomberg, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Niel, his company’s telecom operations are already in neighboring Poland through Iliad, and the large amount of roaming traffic between the countries means that the deal “makes sense”.

In his words, the price was “cheap” compared to the profits of Ukraine’s Lifecell.

The agreement, which was initially announced in December without a value attached, will give NJJ Capital control of such entities as Lifecell LLC, LLC Global Bilgi and LLC Ukrtower.

Niel mentioned that the deal was pending regulatory checks, including a green light from the Ukrainian competition authority.

Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS signed an agreement to sell its Ukraine units to France’s NJJ Capital in late December 2023.