KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Axiata Group Bhd is hopeful that the merger exercise between Celcom Axiata Bhd and Telenor Group’s Digi.com Bhd would be completed by the first quarter of 2022.

President and group chief executive officer Datuk Izzaddin Idris said the group had made the submission to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) last month for the regulator to approve the exercise.

“As far as we are concerned, we have provided all the necessary information that MCMC had requested and now it is up to the regulator to go through the process to look at public interest or probably do a public inquiry.

“My hope is that we can complete it sooner rather than later, whether it is in the first quarter or second quarter of next year, but I do hope if we can complete it by January or February 2022, then we are in good shape,” he said in a virtual media briefing today.

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Izzaddin noted that the group has appointed consultants to undertake the economic analysis of the merger and the impact it had on the market and the industry.

“That is now ongoing and hopefully in due course we will get MCMC’s decision,” he added.

He said once the merger is completed, there will be a period of integration that creates some challenges in maintaining the network, quality of service and customers on both sides between Digi and Celcom.

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To recap, Axiata and Telenor have signed the transaction agreements for the proposed merger, referred to as MergeCo on June 21, 2021.

The signing of the agreement signified a confirmation of their intent to establish a commercially stronger and more resilient digital converged service provider to drive Malaysia’s digital ambitions. — Bernama