Australia’s Tuas said on Friday it had terminated an agreement with Singapore’s Keppel to buy its stake in mobile operator M1 via unit Simba Telecom in a deal worth S$1.43 billion ($1.12 billion).
Shares of the Australian firm lost nearly 10% to A$2.08 in early trading in Sydney. The benchmark stock index was up 0.5%.
The termination comes days after Singapore’s telecom regulator suspended its review of the deal due to an investigation into the radio frequency bands that Simba could have been using.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority said earlier this week it found during a review that Simba could have been using radio frequency bands it had not been assigned to provide mobile services.
Tuas‘ stock crashed more than 60% on Monday following the regulator’s statement.
The Australian company said Simba continues to cooperate with the Singapore regulator, which is probing into potential breaches of the Telecommunications Act and the conditions of its facilities-based operator licence.
In a separate statement, Keppel acknowledged the termination of the deal and said it was not expected to have any immediate financial impact on the company.
Last year, Keppel said it would sell its 83.9% interest in M1 to Simba while retaining the non-telecoms operations for an enterprise value of S$1.43 billion, which would give the asset manager net cash of S$1 billion.
If the stake sale had gone through, a S$0.07 to S$0.11 per-share special dividend may have been distributed, Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua said earlier this week.
($1 = 1.2770 Singapore dollars)
Reuters
