Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata has confirmed the completion of its takeover of Bharti Airtel's Airtel Lanka.
Dialog Axiata confirmed it has taken 100 percent ownership of the telco in a filing last week.
An agreement between the two was first announced in May last year and will see the market consolidate from four telcos down to three.
The agreement received approval from the Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka in April, with the shares snapped up via a share swap.
Following the conclusion of the deal, Axiata Group now owns 73.8 percent of Dialog, Indian telco Bharti Airtel holds a 10.4 percent stake, and the remaining shares are held by the public.
Dialog Axiata is estimated to have close to 18 million total mobile connections in Sri Lanka, while Airtel Lanka has just over 3.1 million.
Dialog Axiata was initially founded in 1993 as MTN Networks, with 90 percent of equity through Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) and the rest from Capital Maharaja. The operator changed its name to Dialog in 2005.
As for Airtel Lanka, the operator only launched in the country in 2009. Its former India-based parent company Bharti Airtel operates in several Asian and African markets including Bangladesh, Kenya, and Rwanda.
