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PTCL’s 2025 Warning on the Telenor Deal: What Happened After the CCP Delay?

PTCL warned in April 2025 that delayed CCP approval could affect the Telenor acquisition timetable and financing. The group had 22% revenue growth but a Rs3.97 billion Q1 loss; the CCP approved the deal with conditions in October 2025.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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In April 2025, PTCL Group’s then-President and Group CEO Hatem Bamatraf warned that a delay in competition approval could threaten the timetable and financing for PTCL’s proposed acquisition of Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers. PTCL Group’s Q1 revenue was up 22% year over year, but it still reported a net loss of about Rs3.97 billion. The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) later approved the acquisition with conditions on October 1, 2025; PTCL reported Telenor Pakistan’s results in its group accounts from January 2026.

What did PTCL warn about in April 2025?

Bamatraf said PTCL was waiting for CCP clearance to acquire 100% of Telenor Pakistan (Private) Limited and Orion Towers (Private) Limited. The share-purchase agreement had been signed on December 14, 2023, and the transaction had originally been expected to close by December 2024. By the time of the April 2025 warning, the reported deadline had been extended to the end of June 2025. PTCL corporate documentation records the agreement date; April 2025 reporting describes the revised deadline and warning.

Bamatraf said further delay could affect the agreement and potentially its associated financing arrangements, including a loan agreement involving the International Finance Corporation (IFC). That was a risk PTCL identified, not confirmation that the financing had been cancelled. In practical terms, missing a transaction deadline can create uncertainty about funding availability, closing conditions, seller commitments and whether terms need to be renegotiated.

The parties also disagreed about the delay’s cause. PTCL said it had provided the requested documents and information. An earlier CCP statement said additional information was still needed before the Commission’s statutory review timetable could proceed. The two accounts explain why PTCL described the delay as unusual while the regulator’s account pointed to outstanding material. The CCP’s statement on its review process sets out its position.

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What did PTCL’s Q1 2025 results show?

The 22% increase was top-line growth, not a return to group profitability. PTCL Group reported about Rs61.85 billion in revenue for January to March 2025 and a net loss of approximately Rs3.97 billion. PTCL standalone reported a profit, while Ufone remained loss-making. Figures below are rounded as reported in April 2025 coverage.

Measure Q1 2025 result
PTCL Group revenue Approximately Rs61.85 billion
Revenue growth year over year 22%
PTCL Group net result Approximately Rs3.97 billion loss
PTCL standalone net result Approximately Rs1.17 billion profit
Ufone revenue growth Approximately 21%
Flash Fiber customers More than 700,000, according to reported coverage
Flash Fiber revenue growth Approximately 70%, according to reported coverage

PTCL attributed revenue growth to consumer businesses—especially fixed broadband and mobile data—as well as enterprise and carrier-wholesale services. Reported growth in broadband and Ufone revenue helps explain the stronger top line, but it does not erase the group’s consolidated loss. The figures and segment context were reported by Dawn.

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Why was the CCP review more than a routine delay?

The CCP moved the proposed transaction into a Phase II review on May 3, 2024, after its initial assessment identified a presumption of dominance. The review considered whether combining the businesses could materially change competition in several telecom markets, not just retail mobile service. The Commission’s Phase II announcement lists the markets under review:

  • Retail mobile telecommunications.
  • Retail long-distance and international (LDI) and fixed-line telecommunications.
  • Wholesale domestic leased lines and wholesale IP bandwidth.
  • Individual mobile and fixed interconnection.

At hearings in September and October 2024, PTCL, Telenor, Jazz, Wateen, Transworld and other stakeholders made submissions. The CCP said the deal could reduce the number of major mobile competitors. Competitors and industry participants raised concerns about concentration, tariffs, infrastructure sharing, national roaming, tower colocation, fiberization, wholesale access and interconnection, including the possibility of input or customer foreclosure. The CCP’s account of the hearings records those issues.

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PTCL argued that the acquisition could produce efficiencies, add network capacity, speed technology deployment and support a future 5G rollout. Those were the company’s arguments for the transaction; they did not remove the regulator’s responsibility to assess the likely effects on competitors and consumers.

What conditions accompanied the CCP’s approval?

On October 1, 2025, the CCP approved PTCL’s acquisition of Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers subject to conditions. The decision followed further proceedings, including an August 2025 session in which PTCL presented its business plan, claimed efficiencies and regulatory accounts, and sought more time to provide information. The CCP’s August update describes that session; its October announcement sets out the approval.

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The conditions were intended to preserve competition, ensure nondiscriminatory access, protect consumers and ensure efficiencies were passed through. Relevant interconnection offers were to be submitted to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for approval. Conditional regulatory approval is not the same as an unrestricted clearance: it carries obligations that matter to how the combined business interacts with other market participants.

The October decision resolved the competition-approval uncertainty described in April, but approval alone should not be treated as proof that every closing or integration step happened immediately. Regulatory obligations, financing requirements and operational integration can continue after a decision.

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What did the deal mean for consumers and competitors?

The central trade-off was scale versus competition. A larger combined operation could have more customers and network resources, potentially supporting investment and service expansion. The same consolidation could leave rivals with fewer independent competitors and make fair access to infrastructure, interconnection and wholesale services more important.

For consumers, the approval conditions addressed concerns such as nondiscriminatory access and passing efficiencies through. They do not, by themselves, establish that prices would fall, coverage would improve or service quality would change by a particular amount. Those outcomes depend on implementation and market behavior, not just the approval announcement. For competitors that rely on access to networks or related services, continuing compliance with access obligations is a material part of the decision.

What changed in PTCL Group’s 2026 results?

PTCL’s Q1 2026 reporting said Telenor Pakistan’s financial results had been consolidated into PTCL Group from January 2026. For January to March 2026, the group reported revenue growth of approximately 58% year over year and net profit of about Rs3.1 billion. Business Recorder also reported a 564% increase in consolidated operating profit. These are later figures, not a revision of the Q1 2025 results. Business Recorder’s Q1 2026 coverage describes the consolidation and reported results.

Adding a business’s revenue to group accounts can increase consolidated revenue without proving that every subsidiary improved or that integration carries no costs. The Q1 2025 results already showed why group and subsidiary performance should be distinguished: PTCL standalone was profitable, but the group was not. The Q1 2026 profit is a later development and should not be read back into the earlier quarter.

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