NEW YORK, STOCKHOLM and BERTRANGE, Luxembourg, May 26, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Millicom International Cellular S.A. ("Millicom") (Nasdaq:MICC) (Stockholmsborsen and Luxembourg Stock Exchange:MIC) today announces that it has acquired additional shares of its subsidiary Telefonica Celular S.A. ("Celtel") in Honduras from Motorola, Inc., bringing Millicom's ownership to two thirds of the total outstanding shares. Motorola is selling its entire equity stake in Celtel. The remaining Motorola stake in Celtel will be acquired by local minority shareholders.
Marc Beuls, President and CEO of Millicom commented: "This acquisition is part of our strategy for growth by increasing our ownership of our existing operations. Central America has seen an acceleration of growth since the launch of GSM services and has recently been one of our fastest growing operations. We believe the prospects in Honduras are excellent."
Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a mobile telecommunications operator with cellular operations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. It currently has a total of 16 cellular operations and licenses in 15 countries. The Group's cellular operations have a combined population under license of approximately 332 million people.
This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to Millicom's expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information. It is important to note that Millicom's actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors. Please refer to the documents that Millicom has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Millicom's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Millicom on the date hereof. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Millicom International Cellular S.A., any Millicom International Cellular S.A members or persons acting on Millicom's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Millicom does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
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