"M1 Group has been informed that the Myanmar Investment Commission has approved Telenor Group's application for the sale of Telenor Myanmar to Investcom PTE Ltd., an M1 Group affiliate," M1 said in a statement.

A separate statement from Telenor said the sale had been given "final regulatory approval".

Myanmar has been in chaos since a coup last year sparked huge protests and a bloody military crackdown on dissent.

In July, Telenor announced that it planned to sell its subsidiary Telenor Myanmar and later cited junta demands that it install monitoring equipment on the network as a reason for leaving the country.

The same month, 474 civil society groups in Myanmar called Telenor's decision to pull out irresponsible, saying it had not sufficiently considered the impact on human rights.

Activist groups say any new owner could comply with future requests from the junta to provide cellphone data.

M1 will partner with local consortium Shwe Byain Phyu to take ownership of the new entity, according to the group's statement.

Founded in 1996, Shwe Byain Phyu started out distributing petroleum products for the then-military government, and employs more than 2,000 people in Myanmar.

It has interests in petroleum trading, manufacturing, commodities trading and marine products, according to its website, which lists no previous telecoms experience.

Since Myanmar's coup, more than 1,600 people have been killed by security forces and over 11,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

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