Malaysia's Axiata, Indian Bharti Artel merge units in Bangladesh

Working together: (From left) P1 CEO Puan Chan Cheong, TM group CEO Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa and Shazalli after the signing ceremony to form a strategic alliance.

PETALING JAYA: 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 yesterday, Axiata said the agreement followed the announcement on Sept 9, 2015, whereby 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.”

Bernama reported that upon completion, Axiata would hold 68.3% controlling stake in the combined entity, while Bharti would hold 25%. The remaining 6.7% would be held by the existing shareholder, NTT DOCOMO of Japan.

Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur earlier, Celcom Axiata Bhd (Celcom), Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) and Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1) have signed three agreements for the TM Next-Gen Backhaul, high speed broadband access, and domestic roaming services.

Celcom and TM had extended their existing partnership to the next phase of backhaul services provision.

“The strategic collaboration will provide a whole new experience for our customers in enjoying the best of data network quality,” said Celcom CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly.

“We want to continuously be the provider of choice.”

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