KUALA LUMPUR – Axiata Group Bhd is in the process of submitting the Celcom Axiata Bhd-Digi.com Bhd merger circular to Bursa Malaysia to pave the way for an extraordinary general meeting in November.
Joint acting chief executive officer (CEO) Vivek Sood said the transaction is on track to be completed before year-end.
Vivek said Digi has submitted its circular to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and is awaiting approval.
“I would say good discussions are happening with the SC,” he said today during Axiata’s second quarter financial results media briefing today.
Axiata reported a net loss of RM106.38 million for the quarter, compared with a net profit of RM277.75 million in the corresponding quarter last year due to foreign exchange losses of RM475.7 million, mainly contributed by mobile operations in Sri Lanka.
Nevertheless, Vivek said the group has no plan to exit the business in the country despite its debt crisis and the collapse of the Sri Lankan rupee.
“Dialog Axiata PLC remains a strong brand in the country. I think we are confident that we will get out of this (crisis). I think we also see this as an opportunity.
“For example, Dialog is now trying to consolidate its data centres from seven to three. Maybe they could have done that during business as usual but this crisis has forced them to do it. So as we get past this crisis, the company will be far more resilient and prepared to have a much better outcome,” he added.
Joint acting CEO Hans Wijayasuriya said the currency is expected to stabilise, at least in the short run, following a promising discussion on a prospective International Monetary Fund (IMF) extended fund facility arrangement.
It was reported that an IMF mission is visiting Sri Lanka from August 24 to 31 for talks on financial reforms and policies.
Meanwhile, Axiata said it is on track to exceed its headline key performance indicators for 2022, which earlier were set at mid single digits for revenue growth and high single digits for earnings before interest and taxes despite the current headwinds.
“From underlying operational operation, we are still fairly confident to exceed the KPIs. Having said that, we are also cognisant of the fact that macro situations in some countries are still not stable enough,” Vivek said.
Axiata has spent around RM2.7 billion of the total RM7.1 billion capital expenditure (capex) set aside for this year.
Vivek said the group still has some projects which have yet to be commissioned and is likely to spend close to RM7 billion of the capex for this year. – Bernama, August 26, 2022
