Malaysian business tycoon Ananda Krishnan today offered to acquire full control of mobile operator Maxis Communications, which owns a majority stake in India's Aircel, to gain greater flexibility in running the company.
Krishnan, who already controls 46.5% stake in Maxis, Malaysia's largest mobile firm, will launch a takeover offer for the remaining shares by May 3, said a regulatory filing on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
The offer, being made through Krishnan-promoted Usaha Tegasis, is estimated to be worth over $5 billion based on Maxis' current market value of $9.4 billion.
Besides, market analysts believe there could be a premium of 20-30% over the current share price, which could take the deal value to over $6.5 billion.
While neither the company nor its promoters gave any reasons for the offer, the experts said privatisation and full control would give Krishnan a free hand for deploying his own wealth for investments in overseas markets like India.
Earlier this month, Maxis announced plans to invest $3 billion in its Indian operations over the next five years. In February, Aircel, in which Maxis owns about 74% stake, had said it was targeting to double its subscriber base to eight million in 2007.
The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) also said trading in the shares of Maxis was being suspended today following a request to this effect from the company.
Maxis said in a separate filing with the exchange it was requesting for suspension of trading till May 3.
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