Telkom in talks to acquire CamGSM stake

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has said it is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Cambodia’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, CamGSM, in a deal that could be worth over USD500 million. According to a report by Reuters, which cites a source with knowledge of the deal, the planned acquisition of CamGSM would value the cellco at around USD1 billion. ‘I hope that the process of acquisition will be completed by the first quarter next year,’ stated Tanri Abeng, Telkom’s chief commissioner, adding: ‘We have made it through the bidding process and we are now in talks to get financial details done, but we are surely going to take a majority stake.’ Abeng declined to give any financial details of the potential deal. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, CamGSM was established in April 1996 as a joint venture between Luxembourg’s Millicom International Cellular (MIC, 58.4%) and the Royal Group of Cambodia (41.6%). The same month it was awarded a 25-year (extended to 35 years in 1999) GSM-900 licence and services were launched in March 1997 under the Mobitel banner. As part of a wider strategy to divest its operations in the Asian market, MIC sold its stake in CamGSM to the Royal Group in August 2009 for USD346 million in cash, raising its local partner’s shareholding to 100%.