Singapore’s Singtel increases investments in Thai carrier AIS

Singapore telecommunications operator Singtel is increasing its stake in Thai operator Advanced Info Services (AIS) through a new investment by its subsidiary Singtel Global Investments.

In the release, Singtel will take a 21.21% stake in Intouch Holdings with a subsidiary acquiring approximately 121 million shares from Temasek’s Andaton Investments for S $ 330 million ($ 237.5 million). He said he had increased it to 24.99%.

Singtel is one of Intouch’s two largest shareholders alongside Gulf Energy. Singtel will increase its economic interest in Thai airlines through a new investment in AIS’s parent company, Intouch.

Yuen Kuan Moon, CEO of Singtel Group, said: Increased investment is part of our strategy to deepen our partnership with Intouch’s largest shareholder, Gulf Energy, and actively recycle capital to invest for growth and shareholder returns. At the same time, it shows that AIS is confident in its potential as a leader in digital and enterprise services, establishing itself as the mobile operator of choice. ”

Singtel said Thailand’s digital economy is projected to nearly double in four years, from $ 30 billion in 2021 to $ 56 billion in 2025. Thailand 4.0 An ecosystem that connects government agencies and the private sector as part of the Digital Transformation Initiative.

Singtel, AIS and Gulf Energy are also working together to build and develop a data center in Thailand, one of ASEAN’s three largest data center markets.

Singtel also said the deal is expected to close by the end of June 2022.

Earlier this month, Chinese vendor ZTE publication Have a comprehensive cooperation agreement with AIS. Under the terms of the agreement, ZTE will be AIS’s strategic partner for upgrading to key technologies such as 5G.

AIS and ZTE will also launch the 5G Innovation Center as a hub for research collaboration and collaborative 5G innovation in both infrastructure and solutions. The 5G Research Center is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.

AIS is currently focusing on expanding its 5G network to cover all 77 provinces in Thailand. Career 5G networks currently reach 78% of the population and aim to reach 85% by the end of this year.

AIS launched 5GNSA (non-standalone) service using 700 MHz, 2.6 GHz, 26 GHz bandwidth acquired at the spectrum auction in February 2020, and collaborated with Huawei to launch 5GSA in July 2020. have started.

AIS’s customer base reaches approximately 44.6 million subscribers, of which 2.8 million 5G subscribers represent 6.3% of the total user base. AIS has already deployed approximately 20,000 5G base stations nationwide.

In July 2021, AIS partnered with Chinese smartphone maker vivo to perform 5G standalone (SA) network testing in Thailand. Singapore Times