Ever since U Mobile was nominated as the second 5G network provider in Malaysia, the news caught many Malaysians by surprise, particularly other well-known local telcos. But in order to proceed, the orange telco's foreign shareholders must reduce its ownership.
As previously reported, Straits Mobile Investment Pte Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Singapore-based ST Telemedia agreed to reduce from 49% to only 20%. This effectively increased Malaysian ownership of U Mobile. According to Malaysiakini, turns out the Royal Family from Johor will become the biggest shareholder after the move.
Malaysiakini reported ST Telemedia sold most of its stake to Mawar Setia Sdn Bhd, owning 28.25% of U Mobile right now. Tycoon Vincent Tan owns Mawar Setia 70%, while Tunku Aminah Sultan Ibrahim, the daughter of the Royal family owns 30%. Her effective stake in U Mobile will be 8.5% and her father, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar (current Yang di-Pertuan Agong) owns 22.3%. By combining both, they are the largest shareholders with 30.8%.
For more context, it is estimated that Vincent Tan has 22.2% of the total stake in U Mobile, done through beneficiary ownership of other shareholders (Berjaya Infrastructure and U Telemedia). And through Mawar Setia, his total control of U Mobile is 19.8%. On the other hand, Diana Tan (his niece) has a 0.28% stake in U Mobile.
U Mobile was chosen as the second 5G network provider sure did raise many eyebrows, but MCMC defended its decision due to customer satisfaction and the orange telco's performance in Jendela Phase 1. Opensignal also reported similar results, showing U Mobile and Unifi leading the 5G connectivity in Malaysia.
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