Telenor divests from True Corp for $3.9B

　　Telenor is to exit Thailand after 25 years, the latest in the continued sell-down and restructure of its Asian assets. It announced Thursday it would offload its 24.95% stake in True Corp to Arise Digital for 100.9 billion Thai baht (US$3.2 billion), with an option that is expected to fetch another THB21.9 billion ($700 million) in two years.

　　Arise is owned by Khun Suphachai Chearavanont, the CEO of charoen Pokphand Group, one of Thailand's biggest conglomerates and True's majority shareholder. True's other main owner is China Mobile, which holds a 7.8% stake.

　　Along with AIS, True Corp is one of Thailand's two dominant mobile players, with 47 million mobile customers, 3.8 million broadband subs and 1.1 million pay-TV subs. In Q3 last year it reported net profit of THB1.6 billion ($51 million) on THB41.3 billion ($1.32 billion) service revenue.

　　Today's announcement follows the completion of the sale of Telenor's Pakistan business to PTCL for 5.4 billion Norwegian krone ($546.1 million) two weeks ago. Telenor Group CEO Schilbred Fasmer said the two deals showed the company was delivering on its strategy of finding "value creation opportunities in Asia."

　　Becoming more Nordic-centric

　　She said the value of Telenor's Thailand shareholding had risen from NOK12 billion ($1.2 billion) prior to the merger to NOK39 billion ($3.9 billion) today.

　　The asset sales would help resource the company's strategic priorities including tech transformation, cost-cutting and boosting shareholder value, the company said.  Additionally, they furthered Telenor's goal of becoming "a more Nordic-centric provider of secure connectivity over time."

　　Telenor entered the Thai market in 2000 when it invested in local operator TAC, which later became dtac and merged with True in 2023, creating the market's largest mobile player.

　　The company expects to book an accounting gain of NOK14.7 billion ($1.5 billion) at the closing of the sale for the initial stake.

　　In another significant merger, Telenor joined its Malaysian mobile business Digi with Axiata's Celcom in 2022, also forming the biggest cellco in the market. But in the same year it was forced to sell out of Myanmar after a military coup shredded the value of its business.

　　Telenor still owns 55.8% of the biggest Bangladesh operator, Grameenphone, in partnership with a local non-profit owned by Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus.