KUALA LUMPUR: There is no discussion with Norway’s Telenor ASA to revive merger talks, said Axiata Group Bhd president and chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ibrahim said.
“There is no discussion and I can say this for sure. If you see me having lunch with them, it has nothing to do about the merger,” he told reporters at Axiata’s financial year 2019 briefing here today.
On January 17, Bloomberg reported about the merger talks revival, just four months after the carriers had scrapped negotiations on a broader merger of their Asian operations.
The potential merged entity would have been one of Asia’s largest regional operators with 300 million mobile customers across nine countries and US$13 billion in sales.
Jamaluddin said before his retirement, he expected an “imminent consolidation” among its operating companies (OpCos) to happen.
“We are not so hard up on this cause without consilidation, we are okay. But with consolidation, we are much better off.
“It could be merger and acquisition, or partnership, or a NetCo (shared network model),” he said.
However, Jamaluddin did not mention the details of which OpCos that might be involved in the exercise.