A unit of Thai satellite operator Thaicom has failed to sell its shares in Mfone to a local investor, so the struggling Cambodian mobile carrier has now filed for insolvency.
Thaicom’s subsidiary Shenington Investments (SHEN) had previously agreed to…
A unit of Thai satellite operator Thaicom has failed to sell its shares in Mfone to a local investor, so the struggling Cambodian mobile carrier has now filed for insolvency.
Thaicom’s subsidiary Shenington Investments (SHEN) had previously agreed to sell 24 million shares in Mfone – equating to 100% paid up capital in the company – to local investor INT Management Service.
However, “the conditions precedent pertaining to Mfone’s debt restructuring with creditors could not be completed within the stated deadline, with the result that SHEN cannot complete the share sale,” said Thaicom in an announcement to the Thai stock exchange yesterday.
On 7 January, Thaicom’s board of directors approved SHEN’s proposal to allow Mfone to enter insolvency proceedings in Cambodia and on 9 January, Mfone submitted its bankruptcy filing to the court in Phnom Penh.
“The filing by Mfone for insolvency will have no significant adverse financial impacts on the company [Thaicom]’s consolidated results as the company has already provisioned for this eventuality in the first nine months of 2012, nor will the process affect the company’s stand-alone performance,” said the statement from Thaicom.
The Cambodian market is highly crowded and very competitive, with ongoing calls for consolidation which have not come to fruition. Back in 2011 the CEO of local operator Smart Mobile told TelecomFinance that he thought there should be a maximum of five operators, rather than the current eight including Mfone.
