JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - AINMT Holdings AB (AINMT), part of Ukrainian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries group, has signed a definitive agreement and all conditions required to invest in PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (STI).
The company however did not disclose the total shares that were acquired nor the value of the acquisition.
Sampoerna Telekomunikasi owns nationwide frequencies in Indonesia. Together with its local partner, AINMT plans to continue to build and upgrade STIs wireless network.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country with a population of almost 260 million. The country consists of more than fourteen thousand islands.
“We remain focused on investing in countries where the population is spread across large geographical distances. This is where our approach to utilize low frequencies can deliver best-in-class mobile data coverage and results for both AINMT and the nation’s inhabitants and businesses,” JD Fouchard, CEO of AINMT, said in a statement.
“With this agreement and the recent transaction in the Philippines, AINMT has a footprint in Southeast Asia that covers around 360 million people. We look forward to capitalizing on the excellent business opportunities this offers,” he added.
Today, AINMT operates throughout Scandinavia on 4G-only networks in Norway (ice.net), Sweden and Denmark (Net1). On 26 November, AINMT announced that it had signed an agreement to invest in Philippine 4G player Broadband Everywhere.
The acquisition of STI shares marked the expansion of AINMT Holdings into South East Asia. Recently, the company also has signed a definitive agreement to invest in Philippine 4G player Broadband Everywhere (BE).
BE owns nationwide LTE frequencies in the Philippines. AINMT and its local partner will invest funds to build a complementary 4G network providing wireless internet access for business and residential customers as well as the M2M market.
The Philippines has a population of approximately 100 million people and consists of 7,107 islands with a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers.
The investment in the Philippines was the first step of AINMT’s expansion plans outside Scandinavia.
“AINMT’s approach of covering large areas through low frequencies is ideally suited for a market such as the Philippines. Further, our 4G-only strategy will allow us to deliver a very good service to underserved areas,” JD Fouchard, CEO of AINMT, said earlier.
All condition precedents for this transaction have been met and funding will occur within next few days. Today, AINMT operates throughout Scandinavia on 4G-only networks in Norway (ice.net), Sweden and Denmark (Net1).
PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia is a cellular service provider with a nationwide, full-mobility license to operate on 450.0 - 457.5 MHz and 460.0 - 467.5 MHz spectrum. STI’s lincense enables it to offer voice and data services, as well as providing access to multimedia services through its cooperation with multimedia providers.
In 2006, STI launched its high quality and affordable telecommunication services under “Ceria” brand name. Using the CDMA450 technology platform, “Ceria” services have much wider coverage from rural/sub-urban to major urban areas.
PT Bakrie Telecom , Indonesia’s fourth-biggest telecom company, has earlier sold 10 percent of its stake to Sampoerna’s telecom unit, PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (STI) for $90 million in return of 35 percent of STI through a share swap with options for it to become the majority shareholder in the next three years.
Both Bakrie Telecom and STI’s shareholders agreed to integrate the two business operations under one management in Bakrie Telecom. The new Bakrie Telecom aims to accelerate the penetration of true mobile convergence offerings for every customer in Indonesia.
Sampoerna Group is an Indonesian business conglomerate that sold its cigarette business PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna to Philip Morris International for $5.2 billion in 2005. (*)