Keppel shares fall up to 5% after M1-Simba deal falls through
Shares of Simba parent Tuas Ltd are down over 60% on the ASX
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[SINGAPORE] Shares of Keppel fell as much as 5 per cent on Monday (May 18) morning after the M1-Simba deal fell through.
The counter dropped as low as S$10.07 as at 10.04 am, erasing more than S$900 million in Keppel’s market capitalisation with a S$0.50 drop. It later pared some losses to be 2.9 per cent down at S$10.29 as at the mid-day trading break.
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Monday said it had halted its assessment of the proposed consolidation between M1 and Simba Telecom until further notice. This comes as it learnt that Simba could have been using radio frequency bands that it was not assigned to provide mobile services.
“We will allow the share purchase agreement with Simba to lapse when the long-stop date comes up later this week on May 21,” said Keppel chief executive Loh Chin Hua on Monday during a briefing with media outlets and analysts.
Shares of Keppel also fell as much as 4.6 per cent in January after news of a mutually agreed extension of the long-stop date for the proposed M1 deal.
On the Australia exchange, Simba’s parent Tuas Ltd plunged over 60 per cent to A$2.22 on the news.
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Keppel in August last year announced plans to sell M1’s telco business to mobile network operator Simba for S$1.4 billion in an all-cash deal as part of its capital recycling programme.
On Monday, Keppel said the proposed divestment will be removed from Keppel’s announced monetisation for 2025.
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