Axiata plans tower unit IPO

Malaysian telco Axiata plans to list its tower unit edotco within the next 12 to 18 months, according to investor relations head Clare Chin. Established in 2012, edotco claims to have some 16,000 towers across its core markets of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar, and 12,000km of fibre in Pakistan.

Malaysian telco Axiata (KLS:AXIATA) plans to list its tower unit edotco within the next 12 to 18 months, according to investor relations head Clare Chin.

Addressing media at Invest Malaysia 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Chin noted that the IPO plans are subject to a final decision, local media reported.

Axiata will most likely list edotco on the local bourse, Nikkei Asian Review cited Chin saying.

“So far, they’ve done a pretty good job in terms of improving cost efficiency across the group by saving two to three percentage points of revenue in terms of land cost as well as rental cost,” she said.

Axiata was not immediately available for comment.

Established in 2012, edotco claims to have some 16,000 towers across its core markets of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar, and 12,000km of fibre in Pakistan. The business’ revenues for 2015 totalled some MR1.2bn (US$308.2m) and it has an average tenancy ratio of 1.5 times.

Last October, the unit agreed to buy a majority stake in Myanmar Tower Company (MTC) from Jamaica-based Digicel in a deal valuing the target at US$221m. This January, edotco CEO Suresh Sidhu said the business intends to use some of its planned US$200m investment in Myanmar over the next five years to quadruple its number of towers there.

Earlier this week, Axiata closed its acquisition of Swedish telco TeliaSonera’s 80.4% stake in Nepal’s Ncell. Last month, the telco priced a 10-year US$500m sukuk to help fund the purchase.

Axiata already has some 275 million customers and 25,000 employees in Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Singapore, Myanmar and Pakistan.