Axiata likely to list edotco within 18 months

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd is considering a plan to list its telecommunication tower unit edotco Group Sdn Bhd on the local bourse.

Speaking to the media at Invest Malaysia 2016, its head of investor relations Clare Chin Kit Ching said the plan for an initial public offering (IPO) was subject to a final decision, which could happen over the next 12-18 months.

Currently, edotco manages and owns 16,000 towers across South-East Asia and Asean, which raked in annual revenue of about RM1.2bil last year with average tenancy ratio of about 1.5 times.

“So far, they (edotco) has done a good job of improving cost efficiency across the group by saving 2-3% points of revenue in terms of land and rental costs,” Chin said.

She added Axiata was adding new units into the edotco group so the revenue figure was not comparable on a year-on-year basis.

In terms of growth, Chin projected edotco could chart a high single digit figure for its new unit in Nepal, Ncell Pte Ltd, in an acquisition deal that was finalised on Tuesday.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Axiata Investments UK Ltd, the telco completed the buy from TeliaSonera UTA Holdings B.V. and Sea Telcom Investments B.V. of Reynolds Holdings Ltd for US$1.365bil for an 80% controlling stake in Ncell.