Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) agreed to pay S$2.47 billion (US$1.8 billion) for stakes in Thailand’s Intouch Holdings PLC and India’s Bharti Telecom Ltd to broaden access to fast-growing wireless markets in Asia and Africa.
Singtel is to pay 60.83 baht (US$1.76) per share for a 21 percent holding in Intouch and 235.62 rupees (US$3.53) a share for 7.39 percent of Bharti Telecom in cash to Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, the carrier said in a statement yesterday.
The transaction is to be funded through short-term debt and a S$1.605 billion placement of shares to Temasek, according to the announcement.
The deal deepens Singtel’s footholds in Thailand and India, where the shift in users to smartphones is driving up demand for data services. Intouch is the biggest shareholder in Advanced Info Service PLC, Thailand’s largest wireless carrier, while Bharti is the largest stake owner of Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s No. 1 mobile phone operator.
The transaction is unlikely to result in a big shift in control of the market because Singtel is buying the stakes from its majority owner, Temasek, while raising the money to pay for it mostly from the owner. The placement of new shares with Temasek is to raise its stake in Singtel from about 51 percent to about 52.27 percent.
Advanced Info and Bharti Airtel Ltd, the wireless affiliate, have operations in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa and a combined customer base of 380 million, Singtel said in the statement.
The Singaporean carrier began investing in those businesses in 1999, it said.
“We have confidence in the long-term performance of India and Thailand,” Singtel chief executive officer Chua Sock Koong (蔡淑君) said at a media briefing in Singapore.
The agreement offers about 1.9 percent less than Wednesday’s closing price for Intouch shares. Bharti Telecom is closely held. The share placement to Temasek is set at about 1.2 percent below Wednesday’s closing price.
“We rebalance our portfolio from time to time,” Temasek telecommunications, media and technology head Ravi Lambah said yesterday in a statement on the company’s Web site. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to further invest in Singtel.”
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