No plan to sell assets, says KCH

KUMUL Consolidated Holdings (KCH) is not aware of any plan to sell Telikom assets to Fijian company Amalgamated Telecom Holding (ATH).
KCH chairman Peter Aitsi and managing director Isikeli Taureka, in a joint statement, said: “ATH recently partnered in Fiji with Vodafone, a reputable international mobile telecommunication company.
“ATH is majority owned by the Fiji National Provident Fund, with the remaining equity held by the Fiji government and major investors in that country.
“In terms of the arrival of the new operator, the decision to issue a third mobile carrier licence to Digitec-ATH was made by the previous government and carried out by the National Information and Communication Technology Authority (Nicta).
“Furthermore, any decision regarding the use of the telecommunications spectrum is totally the responsibility of Nicta, an independent State regulatory agency that has no relationship with the SOEs (state-owned enterprises) which fall under the purview of KCH.”
Aitsi said he was aware of the decision by the Kumul Telikom board some years ago.
“At that time, it was agreed that surplus towers could be sold to other telecommunications entities.
However, this decision was never implemented and no sale of major Telikom infrastructure has been made since that time.
“That position remains unchanged.
“There will be no sale of towers.
“In any case under the KCH Act, the sale or disposal of any SOE assets worth more than K10 million must be approved by the NEC.”