Thai cellco True Move has said it will buy a majority stake in Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia (HCWM) for about Bt4.35bn (US$145m).
HCWM is a joint venture between Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTI), which has a 74% stake…
Thai cellco True Move has said it will buy a majority stake in Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia (HCWM) for about Bt4.35bn (US$145m).
HCWM is a joint venture between Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTI), which has a 74% stake in Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia (HCWM), and Thai state-owned cellco CAT Telecom, which holds the remaining 26%. True Move is part of Thai telecom conglomerate True Corp.
In a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, True explained that its subsidiary Real Move will buy 92.5% of Hutchison Wireless Multimedia Holdings, through which HTI holds its stake in HCWM. Real Move will also acquire holding company BKFT (Thailand).
The transaction will see True take control of Hutchison Multimedia Services (Thailand) and Hutchison Telecommunications (Thailand) as well as HCWM.
The company also stated that Real Move will extend loans of up to Bt6.3bn (US$210m) to BFKT to help the company clear its outstanding debt.
In late November, it was reported that True was willing to pay US$120m-US$150m for the company. At that time, another Thai mobile operator, Advanced Info Service (AIS), was also reportedly interested in acquiring HCWM.
CAT had also obtained government approval to take complete ownership of HCWM last April. But it was ordered in September to lower its offer price from Bt7.2bn (US$240m) to Bt4bn (US$135m), in order to save money for other projects since it is being promoted as a national network provider. Hutch then informed CAT that it would not sell the company for the price asked.
With this transaction, True will reportedly have a major advantage over its competitors AIS and Dtac for the rollout of 3G services. HCWM provides mobile phone services to about 600,000 subscribers in 25 Thai provinces using CDMA technology.
