Gulf eyes indirect route to taking over AIS

Gulf eyes indirect route to taking over AIS

Firm aims to pursue further restructuring

Sarath Ratanavadi, CEO of Gulf.
Sarath Ratanavadi, CEO of Gulf.

SET-listed Gulf Energy Development is expected to pursue a further restructuring of its telecom business portfolio this year, which will include becoming the direct major shareholder of leading mobile operator Advanced Info Service (AIS), according to a market analyst.

Thailand's biggest private power producer by market value holds a 46.7% stake in InTouch Holdings Plc. InTouch is AIS's biggest shareholder with a 40.4% stake, followed by Singapore's Singtel with 23.3%.

Pisut Ngamvijitvong, senior equity research manager of Kasikorn Securities (KS), said analysts were told by Gulf's management during a recent analyst forum that Gulf is studying further restructuring of its telecom business portfolio.

Gulf completed its tender offer for a stake in InTouch in 2021, becoming the biggest shareholder in the tech and telecom-oriented holding company.

In December 2022, Gulf, through its subsidiary Gulf Ventures, acquired a 41.1% stake in SET-listed satellite service provider Thaicom from InTouch.

Mr Pisut said the market cap of AIS is enormous and it may be hard for Gulf to spend a huge amount of money to acquire shares in AIS directly in order to become the major shareholder.

So, the alternative for Gulf is to purchase more shares of InTouch -- the biggest shareholder of AIS -- from Singtel, which owns around 27% of InTouch's shares, he said.

Following such a move, Gulf may pursue a share swap to become the direct major shareholder of AIS while delisting InTouch from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Gulf deems InTouch non-essential in terms of its portfolio structure, he noted.

Mr Sarath stepped down as vice-chairman of the board of InTouch following a pivotal restructuring of the firm.

Last year, Sarath Ratanavadi, the major shareholder and chief executive of Gulf, stepped down as vice-chairman of the board of InTouch following a pivotal restructuring of the firm, which saw a major downsizing and the elimination of four business units.

InTouch eliminated four business units: public relations, investor relations, IT support and venture capital (VC) -- known as the InVent project -- which invests in and incubates startups.

The firm also cut its workforce by half from a total of 50 employees under an early retirement policy, while some shifted to other departments.

Regarding the acquisition of Thaicom, Gulf communicated to the SET on Dec 30 that Gulf Ventures completed the purchase of 450 million shares, or 41.1% of Thaicom, from InTouch, at a price of 9.92 baht per share.

Gulf Ventures will make a tender offer to buy the remaining 645 million shares, or 58.8% of Thaicom at 9.92 baht per share.

Mr Pisut said Gulf is unlikely to grab additional shares in the tender offer as the market price of Thaicom shares is now higher than 9.92 baht.

However, this is not a problem for Gulf, which appears satisfied with the holding of a 41.1% share in Thaicom, Mr Pisut said.

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