European telco Telia has sold its Telia Latvia business to Tet, while its Lithuanian unit has announced plans for a new data center in the capital Vilnius.
Telia Company has entered into an agreement to sell its 100 process ownership in Telia Latvija to local ISP Tet SIA (formely Lattelecom) for €10.75 million ($12.1m) after an auction process. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2022.
Founded in 1992, Telia Latvija has 46 employees and offers telecommunications, cloud, data center, and media services & solutions; it operates a data center in the capital, Riga.
Tet also operates a data center in Riga. The company is 51 percent owned by the Latvian Government, with Telia owning the remaining 49 percent through its subsidiary Tilts Communications. Tet and Telia also own 23 percent 60.3 percent of Latvian mobile operator LMT respectively.
“We have run a competitive auction process for the sale of Telia Latvia during the autumn where a significant number of potential buyers were invited,” said Andreas Ekström, Telia Company’s Head of Latvia. “We are pleased that we have now reached an agreement with Tet who with this acquisition will strengthen its position within the enterprise segment with Telia Latvia’s network and technology assets and highly skilled employees.”
Uldis Tatarcuks, CEO of Tet, added: “Tet’s strategy is to accelerate growth via acquisitions, and we are very excited about the opportunity to acquire Telia Latvia. We believe our businesses complement each other, especially within our data center and transmission business.”
In Lithuania, Telia Lietuva this week announced that it has purchased a 2-hectare plot of land in Raisteniškės near Vilnius and plans to invest €10 million ($11.3m) building what it claims will be the largest data center in the country. Details on timelines or specifications weren’t shared, but the new facility will reportedly use a modular design to enable easier expansion in the future.
Telia Lietuva currently operates two data centers in and around Vilnius in Žirmūnai and Naujoji Vilnia that have both recently had renovations and upgrades.
“A significant increase in the need for IT services for businesses and public sector organizations during the pandemic has become a part of a new, digital economy, which in turn led to our decision to build a new, modern and sustainable data centre. Having connected three data centers located in different parts of Vilnius into a single infrastructure, we will gain an even greater competitive advantage and will be able to offer our customers unique IT solutions and even more security,” said Daniel Karpovič, Head of Enterprise at Telia Lietuva.
