Singapore Telecoms Says Won't Bid For MobileOne
Updated: Monday, May 21, 2001 04:43 AM ET
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (P.SGT, news, msgs), or SingTel, said Monday it has decided not to bid for its local rival MobileOne (Asia) Pte. Ltd.
"Yes. It's confirmed," a SingTel spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the decision. She added that SingTel will release a formal announcement on the issue later Monday.
MobileOne's shareholders have recently announced plans to sell their stake in Singapore's second-largest mobile phone company. The shareholders are Keppel Transportation & Telecommunications Ltd. (P.KTT, news, msgs) and Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. (P.SPH, news, msgs) with 35% each. The remaining 30% is jointly held by UK's Cable & Wireless PLC (CWP, news, msgs) and Hong Kong's Pacific Century Cyberworks Ltd. (PCW, news, msgs).
Earlier this month, SingTel President and Chief Executive Lee Hsien Yang said despite SingTel's interest in MobileOne, anti-competition regulations may prevent it from buying the target.
In a statement, SingTel confirmed it has decided not to go ahead with the bid for MobileOne, or M1.
"While we had earlier expressed our interest in buying a stake in M1, we haven't been able to obtain a copy of the bid document" from M1 regarding the stake sale, the statement said, quoting Lucas Chow, chief executive of SingTel Mobile, a unit of SingTel.
At 0839 GMT (4:39 a.m. EDT), shares of SingTel were down 2.9% at S$1.70.
-By Shen Hong, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-421-4822; hong.shen@dowjones.com
quicken.com |
