(Reuters) – Shareholders of Thailand-based telecoms operator Intouch Holdings gave their backing on Tuesday to a planned $25 billion merger with billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi’s Gulf Energy, although the deal is still complicated by the need for affiliate companies’ approval.
Gulf and Intouch announced last July that they planned to merge to combine their energy and telecom assets and improve operations and investments.
Power producer Gulf Energy owns about a 47.4% stake in Intouch and Gulf’s shareholders approved the merger last October.
A filing by Intouch on Tuesday showed that more than 99% of its shareholders had voted in favour of approving the registered capital of the newly formed entity, which would be called Gulf Development.
However, completion of the merger could still be complicated if the shareholders of affiliate companies Thaicom, a Thai mobile carrier controlled by Gulf Energy, and Advanced Info, another Thai mobile carrier controlled by Intouch, reject plans to be acquired as part of the merger deal.
Gulf Energy, Intouch and Sarath had offered to buy 58.9% of Thaicom at 11 baht apiece.
In January, Thaicom asked its shareholders to vote against the deal, saying its stock price had risen since the merger announcement.
Advanced Info’s board had also advised its shareholders to reject being acquired as part of the merger deal.
Gulf Energy is currently valued at $17.25 billion, while Intouch has a market capitalisation of $7.72 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Sarath, who is CEO of Gulf Energy, has a net worth of $12.9 billion according to Forbes and is Thailand’s fifth richest person.
Intouch’s second biggest shareholder is Singapore Telecommunication (Singtel) which has an interest of around 25%.
Advanced, Thaicom and Singtel did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
($1 = 33.7500 baht)
(Reporting by Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton)
