Axiata’s tower subsidiary edotco is acquiring a 75% controlling stake in Digicel’s Myanmar Tower Company.
The $221 million acquisition is intended to “further solidify” the Axiata subsidiary’s role as an infrastructure provider to the Southeast Asian telecoms space. Axiata president Dato’ Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim added that the purchase would generate revenue streams beyond the firm’s core mobile business.
Axiata noted that the deal grants edotco “strategic majority control” of the Digicel unit, “providing a platform in a highly attractive tower industry within edotco’s geographic area of focus”. Myanmar’s underdeveloped telecoms space is expected to be a major growth market for telecoms infrastructure.
Myanmar would benefit from services that edotco currently offers in other parts of Southeast Asia, including towers, maintenance, transmission and energy. The firm’s CEO Suresh Sidhu said: “the Myanmar telecommunications industry with its low mobile penetration, favourable regulatory conditions and high reliance on tower and infrastructure sharing presents significant potential for the edotco business as it expands into the new market.”
Founded in 2012, edotco currently operates 14,000 towers across several Asian markets including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
