StarHub down 4.9% as M1 sale to Simba dashes hopes of its takeover of the telco

[SINGAPORE] Shares of telco StarHub fell by nearly 5 per cent on Monday (Aug 11) after news of Keppel’s proposed sale of M1 to Simba Telecom.

This has dashed hopes of a potential StarHub takeover of M1, which was rumoured to be on the cards earlier this year.

The counter was trading at S$1.16 as at 11.27 am, with some 4.4 million shares changing hands. This was 4.9 per cent or S$0.06 under its closing price of S$1.22 on Friday.

By 11.35, it was still at S$1.16, with around 4.5 million shares transacted.

On Monday, Keppel announced the proposed divestment of its telco business M1 to Simba Telecom – which had put forward the strongest bid at an “attractive valuation”, among interested parties, the asset manager said.

With an enterprise value of around S$1.4 billion, the proposed sale would result in Keppel receiving close to S$1 billion in cash for its 83.9 per cent effective stake in M1.