SINGAPORE – The Infocomm Media Growth Authority (IMDA) has accepted native telco StarHub’s proposal to purchase a majority 50.1 per cent stake in rival Web service supplier MyRepublic’s broadband enterprise for residential and enterprise clients in Singapore.
In a choice revealed on Wednesday (March 9), IMDA mentioned that the proposed consolidation “won’t considerably reduce competitors in any telecommunication market in Singapore, and won’t hurt public curiosity”.
The proposed transaction was introduced by StarHub and MyRepublic in September final 12 months. On the time, the deal was price $70.8 million.
The 2 firms had mentioned that the proposed transaction would consolidate and strengthen StarHub’s place within the Singapore broadband market by “steering long-term enterprise progress”.
It could additionally increase StarHub’s broadband market presence right here from 34 per cent to 40 per cent. This interprets to greater than 578,000 subscribers in complete, going by figures from June final 12 months.
Competitor Singtel, Singapore’s largest telco, had 655,000 subscribers in the identical interval.
IMDA had issued a session paper on Nov 19 to hunt public suggestions on the proposed acquisition. In accordance with the paper, StarHub and MyRepublic had mentioned the transaction wouldn’t change StarHub’s market standing because the No. 2 participant in Singapore, based mostly on subscriber numbers.
The 2 firms added that the broadband market is “hyper aggressive with many competing operators and really low boundaries to entry”.
StarHub had mentioned in September final 12 months that it noticed clear worth in MyRepublic’s “worthwhile and rising” broadband enterprise in Singapore, which was “anticipated to be accretive to our earnings”.
It had added that the telco stood to profit from MyRepublic’s “lean working mannequin and experiences in regional markets”.
MyRepublic mentioned the capital raised from the deal could be used to speed up regional enlargement plans.
The acquisition entails a StarHub subsidiary, StarHub On-line, shopping for a majority curiosity in a brand new enterprise entity, MyRepublic Broadband, which holds MyRepublic’s broadband enterprise right here.