WILL YOU TELL THE WHOLE WORLD IF IT IS TRUTH, ANOTHER IRRESPONSIBILITY OF CORPORATE WORLD or MISUSE OF INFORMATION.
KUALA LUMPUR: OSK Investment Research said on June 1 speculation has it that a major corporate exercise at the highest level is brewing within Astro.
“Although details are sketchy, we gather that a plan is being mooted to inject Maxis into Astro,” it said in a report issued on June 1.
OSK Research said the major exercise comes on the sidelines of the Invest Malaysia 2009 (IM 2009) conference to be held on June 30 that will feature, amongst others, key Bursa heavyweights and the recent liberalisation in listing requirements.
IM2009 will be Prime Minister’s Najib first official investment showcase to market Malaysian companies to overseas portfolio investors.
The research house said it came to understand from a source that Maxis officials and representatives had been pitching for the re-listing exercise to a select group of individual investors overseas over the past two months.
“While we are not able to confirm the accuracy of the news or the mechanism through which the re-listing would be executed, we believe it is not implausible given the strong paternal links of both companies via a common shareholder.
“Should Maxis be merged with Astro, the combined revenue and net profit of RM11 billion and RM2.2 billion (based on FY09 for Astro and historical numbers for Maxis) would make it the largest listed telecommunications quadruple play exposure in the country,” it said.
OSK Research said the mobile and pay-TV subscriber base would exceed 11 million and 2.6 million respectively, and an estimated asset base of over RM20 billion. It is expected to meet the revised liquidity threshold under the new FBM KLCI guideline, potentially attracting more investors into Malaysia.
“We think a potential snag in the deal could be Khazanah, which holds a 21% stake in Astro and majority stakes in TM (41.8%) and Axiata (44.5%), which are involved in similar line of businesses, posing a conflict of interest.
“Nonetheless, Khazanah’s entry cost in Astro in 2004 during the initial public offer exercise was above RM4.00/share and where we believe it could well accede to the deal should it prove to be value accretive,” it said.
OSK Research said Astro’s share price has continued to languished over the past two years owing to negative news flow on its failed investment in Indonesia and is trading at a discount to the discounted cash flow of its Malaysian operation.
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