Scandinasian

6 May 2019 By Lisa Jucca, Clara Ferreira Marques Follow @LJucca

Telenor and Malaysia’s Axiata are aiming to form a regional champion with some 300 mln customers by merging their South and Southeast Asian businesses. Bigger looks better with savings worth some $5 bln expected. Kuala Lumpur might raise an eyebrow at less competition, though.

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Norway’s Telenor said on May 6 it was in talks with Malaysia’s Axiata Group about a non-cash deal to combine their South Asian and Southeast Asian operations to create a telecom company with some 300 million customers and 60,000 towers across the region.

Under the proposal, Telenor would own 56.5 percent of the merged business while Axiata would hold the other 43.5 percent stake. The operational headquarters would be in Kuala Lumpur and the entity would be listed on Bursa Malaysia as well as on an international stock exchange, Telenor said.

The combined company would have about $13 billion of revenue and $5.5 billion in EBITDA, Telenor said. Cost savings are estimated to be worth about $5 billion on a net present value basis.

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