Malaysia's Axiata Group is said to be seeking buyers for stakes in its Asian telecoms assets worth up to $700 million as part of efforts to reduce debt.
The group may sell around 11% of Indonesia's XL Axiata and up to 30% each of Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata and Cambodia's Smart Axiata, Bloombergreported, citing unnamed sources.
According to the report, Axiata is seeking to cut down its debt, which had grown to 21.5 billion ringgit ($5.2 billion) as of the end of June.
Axiata Group currently owns 83.3% of Dialog Axiata, 95.4% of Smart Axiata and 66.4% of XL Axiata, on top of its operations in Bangladesh and Pakistan and minority stakes in Singapore and India.
In a statement responding to the report, Axiata said the company “continuously reviews various strategic options to enhance shareholders’ value.”
The company confirmed that it has been exploring options to optimize its balance sheet since the middle of last year, “potentially including, but not limited to, the portfolio rebalancing and review of shareholding across subsidiaries.”
But Axiata added that any reports are “speculative” unless and until any transactions are entered into and disclosed to the market.