Ooredoo Officially Collaborates With Hutchinson Tri

Photo: Doc. Indosat

JAKARTA - The news about the upcoming merger between Indosat and Tri has become increasingly prominent. Most recently, Indosat's parent company, namely Ooredoo QPSC, has signed an exclusive and non-legally binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CK Hutchison Holdings Limited.

Quoted from Ooredoo's written statement, Monday, December 28, the MoU relates to potential transactions to merge the respective telecommunications businesses in Indonesia, namely PT Indosat Tbk and PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia.

"The exclusivity period of this MoU is valid until April 30, 2021," wrote Ooredoo's management.

Ooredoo itself is in the early stages of assessing the benefits of this potential transaction. "As part of our corporate strategy, we regularly review our strategic priorities and market position across all of our operations, and their contribution to the Ooredoo Group," continued Ooredoo's management.

Ooredoo would like to emphasize that no binding agreement with respect to possible combinations has been made as of the date of this announcement. The company will make further announcements if needed.

As is known, the discourse of this merger has previously surfaced since last week, where Bloomberg reported that Hong Kong-based financial giant CK Hutchison Holdings Limited has approached an agreement with Ooredoo QPSC.

"CK Hutch is in further talks to merge the telecommunications business in Indonesia with PT Indosat," said a Bloomberg source.

As is well known, Hutchison has a Tri operator business, namely PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia (Tri Indonesia). Meanwhile, Ooredoo owns about 65 percent of Indosat shares which are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).