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The deal has been a long time coming, with the divestment having been first discussed back in summer last year
Singtel, Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms company, has announced that it is set to offload its stake in US cybersecurity firm Trustwave to MC2 Titanium for $205 million.
Singtel purchased its 98% stake in Trustwave in 2015 for $770 million, at the time suggesting that the security business would diversify its portfolio and provide new avenues for revenue growth.
However, this soon proved to be optimistic, with the company struggling for growth against the backdrop of the pandemic.
In the second half of 2021, Singtel incurred an impairment charge of S$336 million ($245.92 million) on Trustwave. A strategic review into the business was quickly launched, with Singtel’s new CEO Yuen Kuan Moon suggesting that the company could be restructured or partially or completely sold as a result.
According to Singtel, the divestment is “in line with its strategic reset to refocus its business in Asia-Pacific and improve shareholder value by optimising resource allocation”.
The operator says the deal should not have a material impact on earnings in fiscal year 2024, which runs until the end of March next year.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the next three months.
Singtel has been moving to reduce its debt for some time, returning its focus more directly to 5G and other digital services. Last month, the Singaporean operator sold off 20% of its regional data centre business to investment firm KKR for $807 million. Furthermore, in August last year, the firm offloaded its 3.3% stake in Bharti Airtel, raising a further $1.6 billion.
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