Abu Dhabi: Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (etisalat) said on Monday it had submitted a binding offer earlier this month to buy out Millicom-Sri Lanka.

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) said yesterday it had submitted a binding offer earlier this month to buy out Millicom-Sri Lanka.

"Etisalat has submitted a binding offer to Millicom on September 4, 2009 to buy 100 per cent shares in Millicom-Sri Lanka," the company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are listed. However, etisalat didn't disclose how much its bid for Millicom-Sri Lanka was worth.

The move will help the UAE telecom giant to grow as its domestic market gets saturated with 188.3 per cent penetration.

"The UAE market added only 83,000 active mobile subscribers during the second quarter this year, 73 per cent less than last quarter's additions and 55 per cent lower than our estimate of 185,000," said a report by EFG Hermes.

Etisalat's senior manager for International Media Relations, Iyad Al Zaabi, told Gulf News the company will disclose more details of its Sri Lankan bid at a later stage.