Mfone’s Assets Sold For Hugely Reduced Price

The assets of bankrupt mobile operator Mfone, which owes creditors more than $160 million, have been sold to a single buyer for the bargain price of $10 million, a lawyer involved with the case said Monday. Khan Sereyvuthy, a legal adviser to the government-appointed administrator handling Mfone’s liquidation, said that the company’s assets were sold on August 4 for a fraction of their estimated $107 million value to the recently registered company Khmer Unified Network Communication Ltd., which is owned by Chinese businessman Khao Yun Dy’s Khmer Holding Group. The buyer has so far paid $2.5 million in two installments, $1 million of which has been used to cover 30 percent of the outstanding wages owed to 1,092 former Mfone employees, who until Monday had only received 10 percent of what they were owed. “We have to pay the employees first, because in accordance with the Labor Law their severance pay must get priority, so this payment brings our repayment [to former employees] to 40 percent,” he said, adding that another $1 million would be paid to cover unpaid rental costs for 1,040 antenna locations. “Once the employees are fully paid, the rest of the money [$10 million] will be paid to our creditors,” he said.

Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mfones-assets-sold-for-hugely-reduced-price-46861/