Telenor Group announced plans to sell its full stake in Myanmar mobile payments joint venture Wave Money to Yoma Strategic Holdings for $76.5 million.

The operator owns a 34.2 per cent stake in Wave Money and its move comes after Alipay-parent Ant Financial outlined plans to pump $73.5 million into the joint venture, to help develop a range of new services.

Ant Financial and Telenor’s moves are subject to regulatory approval.

Telenor, First Myanmar Investment and Yoma Group launched Wave Money in November 2016.

Lars Erik Tellmann, head of financial services at Telenor, said the time was right for the operator to offload its holding. “Both Yoma Group and Ant Group’s core operation is financial services and technology, and they are therefore the strongest owners to take Wave Money forward.”

He added Wave Money had “built a leading position in money transfer and will continue to be a strategic distribution channel for Telenor Myanmar”.

The operator noted revenue and transaction numbers tripled in 2019, and the unit became EBITDA positive in September 2018.