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The pair currently operate independently of one another across southern and south eastern Asia
Norway’s biggest teclo, Telenor, is looking to dramatically boost its overseas offering by launching a new joint venture that would attract over 300 million customers in Southeast Asia.
The JV would be formed with Malaysian telecoms firm, Axiata Group, as the pair look to leverage powerful economies of scale to compete across a number of hypercompetitive markets.
“The bottom line is we need the scale, we need the synergy, we need the balance sheet, we need the strong capabilities of both companies. If we can combine that it will be powerful,” Axiata president and group chief executive, Jamaludin Ibrahim, told reporters from Reuters at a news conference on Monday.
Under the terms of the joint venture, the newly formed entity would combine Telenor’s South Asian operations with Axiata groups regional expertise in Southeast Asia. The JV would be 56.5 per cent owned by Telenor and 43.5 per cent owned by Axiata.
Telenor’s biggest overseas markets are currently Bangladesh and Pakistan where the company has close to 100 million mobile subscribers.
Axiata Group has operations across Southeast Asia, with its biggest markets being in Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
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