Samtel acquires Portalnet
The board of Samart Telcoms (Samtel) has approved the acquisition of 99.99 per cent of Portalnet from M Link Asia Corporation for not more than Bt552 million, and approved the return of not more than Bt1 billion from Portalnet to M Link Asia and other cre
According to Samtel’s filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday, the total value of these two transactions is not more than Bt1.552 billion. The board approved the deals on Thursday.
Samtel and Portalnet provide information and communications technology services to state agencies and private enterprises. M Link Asia is a major handset distributor.
Samtel is the main ICT service provider of Samart Corp. It will sign a memorandum of understanding regarding the deal with M Link. The company will also request approval from shareholders before entering into the deals.
According to Samart president Watchai Vilailuck, the move will strengthen Samart group’s ICT solution-provision business. Last year Samtel made more than Bt10 billion in revenue and Bt791 million net profit. It targets more than 50-per-cent revenue growth this year.
M Link yesterday submitted to the SET its board resolution proposing that shareholders approve the disposal to Samtel of assets related to Portalnet. The shareholders’ annual general meeting is on April 27. The board also passed a resolution approving the appointment of Capital Link Advisory as the company’s independent financial adviser to provide opinions on this deal to shareholders.
According to M Link, the company’s board of directors’ approved the disposal of assets related to Portalnet because it would risk financial losses if it continued to be a Portalnet shareholder.
In 2004, Portalnet formed a joint venture, Consortium SPIES, with Siemens Co Ltd, Siemens AG and IBM (Thailand), and signed an agreement with the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to provide software on a rental basis for eight years – three years of implementation and five years of rental. The total value of the project was Bt3.192 billion.
However, the PEA was not able to provide all required data according to the agreed schedule, resulting in Consortium SPIES’ failure to deliver the project on time.
