Shareholders of Malaysia-based Green Packet has reportedly approved Packet One (P1) Malaysia’s investment agreement under which the former will collaborate with Telekom Malaysia and South Korea’s SK Telecom (SKT) on developing a next-generation LTE network to offer customers a full-suite of converged communications services. According to the Sun Daily, Green Packet now expects the deal to be completed in the third quarter of 2014.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, in March 2014 it was announced that under the terms of the deal TM will take a 57% stake in P1, while the agreement will establish a partnership framework for the three parties to share in the ownership and collaborate on the future growth of the wireless broadband provider. As part of the investment agreement, TM will initially invest MYR350 million (USD92 million) into P1 via the subscription of new ordinary shares to make it the majority shareholder; Green Packet and SK Telecom will both remain key strategic shareholders upon completion of the transaction. Further, TM will invest up to MYR210 million into Green Packet via newly issued redeemable exchangeable bonds, which may be exchangeable for Green Packet’s stake in P1 in the future. Approval from both local regulatory bodies and Green Packet shareholders’ are required before the deal can move forward, however.
With the strategic partners now expected to invest a further MYR1.65 billion for P1’s LTE roll-out, in response to the shareholder approval Green Packet group managing director CC Puan was cited as saying: ‘The strong shareholder support received today sets a clear path for P1 to grow to its fullest potential and realise its future business plan and LTE transition. Green Packet will benefit from P1’s direct entry into the mobile market which instantaneously grows P1’s addressable market size to MYR34.5 billion, a four times growth.’