VEON agrees to buy Uzbekistan's Perfectum for about $207 million
Key Facts
VEON announced an agreement to acquire 100% of Rubicon Wireless, the telecom operator trading as Perfectum in Uzbekistan, as part of an expansion aimed at integrating its assets with Beeline Uzbekistan's network. The group said in its transaction statement that total consideration is about $207 million, including financial debt it will assume under the agreement. That amount includes about $93 million in Perfectum's existing financial debt. VEON added that it would fund the cash consideration from its "existing cash resources". It confirmed that the transaction had received the relevant regulatory approvals, while ownership of the operator remains subject to completion of the acquisition.
The assets covered by the agreement include a total of 115 megahertz of spectrum, according to VEON's statement detailing the acquisition. The spectrum spans the 850 and 3,800 megahertz bands. The group plans to integrate Perfectum's assets with Beeline Uzbekistan's network, a move it is counting on to deliver operational benefits from the transaction. VEON expects the integration to generate savings in both network capital expenditure and operating expenditure. It also expects to improve the efficiency of future investment by combining the acquired assets with its existing network in the Uzbek market, according to its stated objectives for the agreement.
Perfectum had selected Nokia as the sole supplier of an end-to-end standalone fifth-generation network solution in Uzbekistan, according to a statement from the telecom equipment maker. Nokia's announced supply scope includes the radio access and transport components required for the network. It also extends to the core network as part of the end-to-end solution the company will provide to Perfectum as its sole supplier. Beeline Uzbekistan, with whose network VEON plans to integrate the assets, had about 7.7 million customers in September 2025. Its network operations centre oversaw more than 5,850 base stations, according to the announcement of the centre's opening issued in January 2026.
On the group's funding capacity, VEON reported cash and cash equivalents of $2,193 million in its second-quarter 2026 results, its latest published financial results before the transaction announcement. That balance included $968 million at group headquarters, according to its financial results statement. In a separate local infrastructure initiative, Beeline Uzbekistan plans to become an anchor tenant at DataVolt's data centre in Tashkent's IT Park. The arrangement is based on a memorandum of understanding between the companies setting out the commercial terms of the partnership. DataVolt, Beeline's data centre infrastructure partner, is headquartered in Saudi Arabia, according to VEON's statement on the agreement.
The acquisition agreement follows financial results in which the group reported a 53.6% year-on-year increase in digital revenue in the second quarter of 2026. That revenue totalled $342 million, according to the financial results statement preceding the announcement of the Perfectum acquisition. VEON raised its guidance for annual dollar-denominated revenue growth in 2026 to a range of 15% to 18%. The group's previous revenue growth guidance was 11% to 14%. It also raised its guidance for annual dollar-denominated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation growth to 9%–12%, from the previous range of 7%–10%.
VEON expects to complete the Perfectum acquisition by the end of October, according to the timetable it announced for the transaction following regulatory approvals. Its next financial reporting date is 6 November 2026, when the group will announce its third-quarter results, according to its notice to investors. It will then hold its Capital Markets Day on 16 November 2026, according to a separate event announcement. The event is scheduled to take place at Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City, where the company will present its strategic priorities. The announced presentation agenda also includes the group's performance and outlook at the capital markets event, which follows the third-quarter results.