True Corp puts off shareholders meeting on infrastructure fund, share divestments

The meeting was originally scheduled for September 12. True filed to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday that it would decide next month on a new date and would further notify the SET. 

The company found that there was a lot of information related to the transactions for the infrastructure fund and the financial adviser required sufficient time to study it.

True’s board last month approved plans to set up the fund to raise no less than Bt70 billion, aimed at repaying debt as well as financing future business expansion. 

 

Planned sakes  

To raise the capital for the fund, the company plans to sell its telecom towers, core fibre-optic cable networks, broadband networks, and the rights to revenue from equipment rental. It will also acquire a 33-per-cent stake in the fund. 

The board last month also approved the Bt5.4-billion sale of ordinary shares in eight non-core business subsidiaries to Thana Telecom Corp, wholly owned by True parent Charoen Pokphand. This would allow True to focus on its core businesses. Some of the proceeds from the sale will go towards repaying company debt.

TrueMove and CAT Telecom are still engaged in an arbitration dispute on the ownership of some telecom towers under the state agency’s concession. True executives have reaffirmed that this would not affect the process of establishing the infrastructure fund.

A key part of the fund’s creation is True’s plans to sell telecom infrastructure assets to the fund, including 13,000 towers. TrueMove has 7,000 telecom towers under a CAT concession, of which 4,500 are listed in the arbitration dispute. True itself has 6,000, while True subsidiary BFKT (Thailand) has another 1,400.