The board of Pakistan’s national telecoms operator PTCL reportedly gave the green light to make an offer for Telenor Pakistan for between $800 million and $1.2 billion, potentially creating the second-largest operator in the country by connections.

Local newspaper The News reported PTCL’s parent company e& committed to guaranteeing loans needed to complete the deal and sought government approval to fund the deal in US dollars held offshore due to a liquidity crunch affecting the currency in Pakistan.

GSMA Intelligence estimates for 2022 shows the acquisition could create an operator with 73.3 million connections, behind Veon-owned Jazz with 76.2 million.

Telenor Pakistan closed 2022 with 49.6 million connections, while PTCL’s mobile unit Ufone had 23.7 million.

Norway-based Telenor Group pulled back much of its operations across Asia, closing deals to sell its mobile units in Malaysia and Thailand.

It completed the sale of its Myanmar unit to M1 Group in March 2022 for $105 million.