News & Reviews:   axiata

The Celcom-Digi merger has been completed. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Axiata stated that the company would hold equal ownership with Telenor in Celcom Digi at 33.1 per cent each. The merger will also become the largest local listed technology company on Bursa Malaysia.

Over the weekend, the Board of Directors of Digi.Com Berhad and Axiata Group Berhad announced the companies' shareholders had approved the proposed merger of Digi and Celcom's operations at its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). A formal filing on the outcome of the EGM will be made to Bursa Malaysia once the market reopens in the coming week.

It looks like the Digi and Celcom merger is getting close to completion after the Securities Commission Malaysia’s (SC) approval of the proposed merger between the two local telco giants. This announcement comes after almost 2 months after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) also gave its approval for the merger.

Axiata Group Bhd and Digi.Com Bhd in a joint statement today welcomed the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)’s decision to approve their proposed merger company. Lauding the potential of the merger in driving digitalisation in Malaysia, both companies also revealed that the new company name would be ‘Celcom Digi Bhd’.

Earlier today we reported that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has approved the merger between Celcom and Digi. Now, a further look into the approval shows that it comes with certain requirements, including the divestment of the Yoodo brand.

Two years ago, there were talks about Celcom and Digi's parent companies - Axiata and Telenor respectively about merging together but the plan failed through. Today, the two parties are back at discussions and a newly merged company will be created as Celcom Digi Berhad.

Based on a statement by rnggt.com, it seems that companies such as Axiata, BigPay, Grab, and more, will allow the public to take a small loan. But that’s not all, depending on which income group you’re in, you could potentially get reduced interest rates when borrowing less than RM500.

Today, the Malaysian government has announced the movement control order will be extended until 14 April 2020. It is not surprising at all as cases in our country have been increasing these few days. Therefore, it is better to stay home for a few more weeks to halt the spread. However, this may not be good news for some of the non-essential businesses especially micro-SMEs. Luckily, Axiata is here to save the day with its subsidiaries Celcom and Boost, as they’re contributing a RM150 million cash fund to support small businesses that are facing difficulties.

For this week's TechNave NewsByte 2019, we see a few brands offering gift guides for the holiday season, industry conferences from Cisco and OPPO, as well having Maxis being the most happening of the bunch with its startup pitching platform and Hotlink deals.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend a keynote panel discussion hosted by edotco where notable figures such as CEO of Time Broadband Afzal Abdul Rahim, CEO of Robi Axiata Limited Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Head of BCG Vaishali Rastogi, as well as Chairman of MCMC Encik Al-ishal Ishak were present. They then discuss the state of Malaysia's network infrastructure and whether it is enough to support the upcoming 5G network which will start to roll out sometime next year.