China Mobile announced on Monday it has signed an agreement with Millicom International Cellular to buy the Luxembourg-based company's 88.86 percent share of Paktel Limited, Pakistan's fifth largest mobile phone operator.

The deal, which values the Pakistani company at 460 million U.S. dollars, requires government approval but is expected to be completed in late February.

This is the first time that China Mobile has acquired a foreign telecommunication company of "strategic significance".

Last year, the Chinese telecommunication giant acquired all shares of Hong Kong's fourth largest mobile operator, China Resources Peoples Telephone Co. Ltd. and a 19.9-percent stake in Phoenix TV.

Paktel Limited had 1.56 million mobile phone subscribers, for a 3.5 percent share market in Pakistan as of last October.

The Pakistani telecommunication market is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, with 12.8 percent of the population using mobile phones.

Millicom is a global telecommunication investor, providing cellular telephone services to 12.8 million people in 17 emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Source: Xinhua