Keppel, Tuas confirm M1-Simba deal dead in water

[SINGAPORE] Tuas Ltd and Keppel announced in separate statements on Friday (May 22) morning that the proposed divestment of Keppel’s telco business, M1, to Tuas had fallen through.

Tuas Ltd – the Australian-listed parent company of local telco Simba – said that it had terminated the sale and purchase agreement to acquire shares in M1. The deal, which was valued at S$1.4 billion, was originally announced in August 2025.

It had terminated the acquisition as conditions for the long-stop date were not met by the deadline of May 21, said Tuas Ltd.

Similarly, Singapore-listed Keppel said on Tuesday that the termination came as the condition relating to obtaining relevant approvals from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) was not fulfilled by the extended long-stop date of Thursday.

This followed the IMDA ​announcement on Monday that it has halted its assessment of the proposed M1-Simba consolidation.

The suspension came after IMDA learnt that Simba could have used radio frequency bands it was not assigned to provide mobile services. If confirmed, Simba would have breached Singapore’s Telecommunications Act.

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Tuas Ltd said that Simba “continues to cooperate with the investigation being undertaken by IMDA” in relation to alleged spectrum breaches by Simba.

Shares of mainboard-listed Keppel were up 4.3 per cent in early trade on Friday morning after the announcement, while shares of Tuas Ltd were down 0.7 per cent on the Australian Securities Exchange.