Malaysian satellite operator Measat has been delisted from the Bursa Malaysia Securities after Telekom Malaysia (TM), the country’s incumbent telco, agreed to sell its 15.4% stake to billionaire Ananda Krishnan for MYR252.1m (US$81m).
TM’s acceptance to…
Malaysian satellite operator Measat has been delisted from the Bursa Malaysia Securities after Telekom Malaysia (TM), the country’s incumbent telco, agreed to sell its 15.4% stake to billionaire Ananda Krishnan for MYR252.1m (US$81m).
TM’s acceptance to sell its interest removed the last main hurdle on the road to Measat’s privatisation. In a statement released a few weeks ago, Krishnan’s takeover vehicle Measat Global Network Systems (MGNS), which conducted the transaction, announced that the number of Measat shares held by MGNS represented more than 96% of the total shares.
Under the terms of Krishnan’s offer, MGNS needed own at least 90% of Measat’s shares to complete its takeover.
In the statement, MGNS also said “arising from the above as the public shareholding spread of Measat is below 10% of the total listed shares and in view of that the offeror has no intention to maintain the listing status of Measat (…), Bursa Securities shall suspend trading in all the securities of Measat upon the expiry of five market days from the date of this announcement [September 8]”.
Last July, Krishnan confirmed to the Bursa Malaysia that he intended to acquire the remaining 40% of Measat it does not already own from minority shareholders for MYR4.20 (US$1.34) per share and then to take it private. The total transaction was estimated to cost Krishnan about MYR668m (US$214.5m).
This privatisation is expected to allow Krishnan to spend around US$1bn over the next two or three years to enable the satellite operator to significantly gain scale, according to local reports. CIMB Investment Bank and Maybank Investment Bank are acting as advisers on the takeover process and AmInvestment Bank is advising Measat.
