Kuala Lumpur, July 24 (TNS): Malaysian group Axiata is selling its 89% stake in Pakistani carrier Multinet to the CEO for just $1.
It reported to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange – in a filing simply headed “Others” – that CEO Adnan Asdar Ali, who already owns 11% of Multinet Pakistan, will buy the rest.
“For the last few years, Multinet’s financial performance has been declining,” said Axiata in the filing. In the year ending 31 December 2017 total losses were 754 million Pakistani rupees ($5.87 million).
“Accordingly, Multinet’s contribution to Axiata’s financial and business performance is immaterial,” said the Malaysian group.
Axiata says that Multinet offers fixed internet services mainly in the business sector, with a fibre network across Pakistan. It offers long distance and international origination and termination.
In 2016 Oman’s Omantel and Pakistan’s Multinet signed an agreement to set up a new submarine cable system, Silk Route Gateway 1 (SRG-1) that was claimed be the beginning of a smart regional network.
Multinet’s website, not updated for some time, says that SRG-1 was due to be in service in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, according to TeleGeography’s online submarine cable map, SRG-1 will be ready for service in 2020, linked Gwador and Karachi in Pakistan with Muscat in Oman. SRG-1’s own website says it will have two fibre pairs, carrying 10Tbps per fibre pair.
Multinet says it has a 12,000km fibre network in Pakistan, connecting 120 cities. It has two connections into Afghanistan, the company says.
According to Bloomberg, Multinet’s CEO Ali is a co-founder of the company. He trained as a civil engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Minnesota. However, the same online biography also wrongly says that Multinet is “a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia”. Axiata was originally the international business of Telekom Malaysia but was demerged in 2008.
He also chairs the Searle Company, a Pakistani pharmaceutical company.
