JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Ooredoo QSC said on Wednesday that it has no plan to divest its stakes in Ooredoo’s Indonesian subsidiary, PT Indosat Ooredoo Tbk (IDX: ISAT), denying media speculation.
“Ooredoo wishes to confirm it has no intention of selling its interest in the business. Indosat Ooredoo is Ooredoo’s biggest international market and is strategically important to Ooredoo’s corporate strategy given its long term growth prospects,” the company said in a statement at Ooredoo’s website.
The carrier could sell its 65 percent stake in Indosat to another phone company willing to expand in the region, reports said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The holding has a market value of about $1.4 billion. No final decision has been made and deliberations are still at a preliminary stage, the people said.
Ooredoo, which has operations spanning Algeria to Myanmar, is also considering a sale of its indirect stake in Singapore’s StarHub Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said in July. Ooredoo is majority owned by the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund and other government related entities. Investment funds in many Middle Eastern countries are raising cash through asset sales to combat declining oil prices. (*)