Jamal: No merger talks with Norway’s Telenor

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd is not holding discussion with Norway’s Telenor ASA about reviving merger talks that were called off last year.

“There is no discussion and I can say this for sure. Even if you see me having lunch with them, it has nothing to do with any merger,” said Axiata president and group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ibrahim at the company’s financial year 2019 performance briefing, here, yesterday.

Bloomberg reported on Jan 17 that merger talks might be revived, just four months after the carriers had scrapped negotiations on a broader merger of their Asian operations.

The merged entity would have become one of Asia’s largest mobile infrastructure companies with 300 million mobile customers across nine countries and US$13 billion in sales.

Jamaluddin said before his retirement, he expected an “imminent consolidation” among its operating companies (OpCos) to happen.

“We are not so hard up on this cause without consolidation, we are okay.

“But with consolidation, we are much better off. It could be merger and acquisition, or partnership, or a NetCo (shared network model),” he said.

However, Jamaluddin did not elaborate on which OpCos might be involved in the exercise.

Meanwhile, deputy group CEO Datuk Mohd Izzaddin Idris said Axiata had been approached by 11 local parties to date in relation to a possible partnership to set up Malaysia’s maiden virtual banking service.

Izzaddin said the parties included banks and players from sectors related to virtual banking.