Axiata and Bharti Airtel to merge units in Bangladesh

(From left) P1 CEO Puan Chan Cheong, TM CEO and P1 chairman Tan Sri Zamzamrani Mohd Isa, and Celcom Axiata Bhd CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly after the signing ceremony at Pullman Hotel KL

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd and Bharti Airtel Ltd have signed a definitive agreement to merge their respective telecommunications units in Bangladesh, Robi Axiata Ltd and Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. 

Bharti Airtel is an Indian global telecommunications services company headquartered in New Delhi.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday, Axiata said the agreement followed the announcement on Sept 9, 2015, that both parties would enter into an exclusive discussion to explore possibility of combining the business operations in Bangladesh.

“Post-merger, the combined entity operating as Robi will serve approximately 40 million customers. 

“Upon completion, Axiata will hold 68.3% controlling stake in the combined entity, while Bharti will hold 25%. The remaining 6.7% will be held by the existing shareholder, NTT DoCoMo of Japan.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Celcom Axiata Bhd (Celcom), Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) and Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1) signed three agreements on Thursday for the TM Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH) high speed broadband (HSBB) access, and domestic roaming services.

The agreements will ensure faster and seamless Internet experience for subscribers as telecommunications companies leverage on each other’s infrastructure to improve their respective customers’ Internet experience. 

Through the collaboration, Celcom and TM have extended their existing partnership to progress to the next stage of backhaul services provision.

Backhaul networks are crucial in supporting the main traffic types – voice, video, network signalling or management and Internet data.

This will accelerate the fiberisation rollout of Celcom’s 4G network through TM’s provision of an extensive and robust backhaul with high bandwidth capacity, said Celcom chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly.

“The strategic collaboration will provide a whole new experience for our customers in enjoying the best of data network quality.

“We want to continuously be the provider of choice. With a robust backhaul and resilient network, we are confident that we are able to attract customers who scout around for quality data network,” said Shazalli.

Apart from that, there will be an extension of the agreement for Celcom’s access to TM’s HSBB network.

From this, Celcom will be able to offer fixed broadband services for business-to-customer and business-to-business segments on top of its mobile offerings, expected to be rolled out by the second half of 2016.

“With endless innovation such as this venture into converged services, we will be able to continuously extend the options of our services offerings.

“This will also empower Celcom to provide outreach and move into underserved markets to ensure connectivity is easily accessible,” added Shazalli.

Celcom’s domestic roaming service provision to TM will be facilitated through the latter’s mobile arm, P1. This strategic collaboration will further strengthen P1’s readiness to launch its mobile services this year.

TM shares shed 13 sen to close at RM6.52 on Thursday. Meanwhile, Axiata shares ended trading at RM5.59, down 52 sen.