GLOBAL asset managers I Squared Capital and Macquarie are among bidders vying for a stake in the fibre business of Indonesia’s Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison in a deal that could value it at US$1 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Plans for the sale come as global investors’ interest grows in digital infrastructure across Asia, lured by prospects for growth against the backdrop of rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing-based services.
Indosat, Indonesia’s second-biggest mobile telecom company, could sell a stake of up to 75 per cent in its fibre business asset with final bids due in April, said the sources, who both spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.
However, no final decision has been made and the stake size and timeline could change depending on market conditions, they added.
Other contenders include Profesional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo), Indonesia’s largest independent owner and operator of telco towers, one of the sources said.
Indosat hired Citigroup to run the sale last year after expressions of interest from investors and companies keen to partner it to further grow the fibre optic telecoms business, Reuters reported in March 2024.
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Indosat and Citi declined to comment. I Squared and Macquarie said no comment.
Protelindo said that it pursues a business strategy of growing both organically and inorganically, but declined to respond to market rumours. “All disclosures to the public will be made in accordance with applicable regulations,” a Protelindo director, Anita Anwar, said on Wednesday (Mar 12).
Larger peer Telkom Indonesia appointed Goldman Sachs and Mandiri Sekuritas to help it find a strategic investor for its data centre business, a company official told Reuters in August.
In June, a consortium of US investment firm KKR and Singtel said that it would invest US$1.3 billion in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, one of Asia’s biggest data centre providers.
Indosat, headquartered in Jakarta, saw net profit rise 9 per cent on the year to 4.91 trillion rupiah (S$397 million) last year, its financial statement showed in February.
Revenue climbed 9.1 per cent on the year to 55.9 trillion rupiah, driven by better performance by its cellular, and multimedia, data communication and Internet businesses. REUTERS
