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Axiata has begun talks to sell its 49% stake in Iranian unit Mobile Telecommunications Co of Esfahan (MTCE), according to a report quoting Axiata's chief strategy officer Azwan Khan Osman Khan. "It isn't loss-making, but it's more of a distraction which takes up management bandwidth," Azwan said, without disclosing who the potential buyer was or what price the company was seeking for the stake.
MTCE, which is a joint venture between Axiata and the Telecommunication Company of Esfahan (TCE), holds a regional mobile concession, limiting its services to Esfahan. It is reported to have a small subscriber base, with one estimate at just 16,000 users at the end of September 2011, giving it a market share of around 0.01%.