Axiata and Telenor have deferred the deadline for the proposed merger of their Malaysian units, Celcom and Digi.
The companies made the confirmation via separate stock exchange filings with Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, noting that they plan to “to extend the date by which the conditions precedent set out in the share purchase agreement (SPA) are to be satisfied or waived in accordance with the terms and conditions of the SPA from 21 June 2022 to 31 December 2022, or such other date as mutually agreed in writing between the parties.”
CommsUpdate noted that the change in the ‘Long Stop Date’ will be the sole amendment to the terms and conditions of the SPA. The merger has been under discussion since 2019, although it was initially scrapped before re-emerging in 2021. In June that year, the firms signed transaction agreements for the deal.
At the time, it was estimated that the resulting entity - referred to as MergeCo – would generate MYR12.4 billion (US$2.8 billion) on around 19 million customers, with EBITDA of MYR5.7 billion to generate net profit of MYR19.9 billion. Axiata and Telenor have confirmed that MergeCo will be listed on the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, with each partner taking a 33.1% stake in the entity.
