Lintel group to start mobile operator in Congo

Lebanon-based ‘Lintel Holding’ to launch its third mobile operator in Africa in Q1 2012

Lebanon-based Lintel Holding announced that it will launch a mobile operator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by April 2012. The Congo operator will be the group’s third mobile operator in Africa.

Lintel Holding is the mother company of Africell Holding, which already has two mobile subsidiaries operating in Africa, Africell Gambia and Africell Sierra Leone.

Lintel said that the two mobile operators have more than two million active subscribers combined. It said that the two operators enjoy more than 60 percent market shares in each territory.

The group’s CEO Ziad Dalloul said that the launching of operations in the DRC will be “a game changer given the huge potential the country represents.”

The group said that it expects to achieve earnings of around $40 million this year.