Cellcom Israel Moves Forward Wwith Hot Group/IBC Investment

Cellcom Israel recently announced a possible investment transaction between the Israel Infrastructure Fund and Hot Telecommunication Systems Ltd., and IBC Israel Broadband  In order to follow through with the Cellcom’s investment proposal, The Israel Ministry of Communications, or MOC, required a number of regulatory tasks and approvals to be completed before confirming the transaction. After pending approval from the MOC, Cellcom has officially been permitted to follow through with the agreement to invest.

Although preliminary requirements were met, The MOC included provisions to the deal, such as an obligation to reach 1.7 million households within five years, and providing a "shelf proposal" to any operator interested in purchasing its services. The agreement also stipulates that IBC must make amendments to it’s license. The transaction will likely be completed at some point over the following weeks.

The news comes at a rather active time for Cellcom Israel, with the company also announcing this week that it would be filing a lawsuit against shared network partner, Xphone, due to a breach of contract. The lawsuit claims that Xphone currently owes Cellcom Israel roughly $34 million in monthly back payments, and would like to push enforcement of the original network sharing agreement.