Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The combination of Axiata Group Bhd and Telenor ASA's mobile businesses, which would become the larg...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The combination of Axiata Group Bhd and Telenor ASA's mobile businesses, which would become the largest operator in the industry in Southeast Asia, was approved by Malaysia's communications regulator on Wednesday.
Malaysia's second- and third-biggest mobile service providers, Telenor's Digi.Com Berhad and Celcom Axiata Berhad, respectively, will merge to form the nation's largest mobile service provider, according to a statement from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Following the firms' submission of a series of undertakings to remedy potential competition difficulties brought on by the merger, MCMC claimed to have issued a notice of no objection.
In a joint announcement, Digi.Com and Celcom stated that undertakings included the sale of Celcom's "Yoodo" brand and 70 MHz of their spectrum. They also agreed to position current products under a single corporate brand and create a distinct autonomous business unit for their mobile virtual network operators' (MVNO) wholesale business.
The new Celcom Digi Berhad was expected to generate annual revenues of over $3 billion and core profitability of $1.4 billion from a subscriber base of roughly 19 million people when the merger was first announced last year. The market value of Digi.Com was almost $6 billion.
With more than 9.4 million revenue-generating subscribers, Maxis Bhd is currently Malaysia's top mobile service provider.
The merger is anticipated to be finalised in the second part of 2022, with 33.1 percent ownership held equally by Axiata and Telenor.
The company announced that it will now require the permission of the Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia, and shareholders.
Haakon Bruaset Kjoel, the head of Digi.board Com's of directors, said, "Today gets us closer to developing a strong Malaysian firm with the combined scale, experience, network, and innovation leadership to drive Malaysia's digital growth in the future years."
According to the announcement, the companies would be in a good position to develop 5G solutions. Malaysia has established a special purpose corporation, Digital Nasional Berhad, to supervise the deployment of infrastructure and networks and plans to roll out the 5G telecoms spectrum in stages.
Shares of Digi.Com increased as much as 7.7% when trading in the stock restarted. Shares of Axiata increased by as much as 2.85%.
