Norway’s Telenor to Cut Share in Malaysia’s DiGi by Year-End

Norway‘s Telenor ASA will reduce its share in Malaysia‘s DiGi from 61 percent to 49 percent by year-end to comply with the local restrictions for foreign shareholding and to raise share for ethnic Malay investors from the current standing of only 8.4 percent to 30 percent.
The cut will not undermine the role of Telenor as the major player in DiGi but it does have difficulties in meeting a 30 percent target for ethnic Malay share in the company which is an effort by the government to increase Malay’s economic participation.
“It’s been difficult to comply (with the 30 percent quota) .. It’s almost impossible to get (Malay) investors with the capacity to take up the shares,” said Arve Johnson, DiGi’s chairman.
Ranking No.2 after Malaysia’s top mobile phone operator Maxis, DiGi earned US$1.04 billion in revenue last year and is expected to raise that to US$1.14 billion this year.