StarHub acquires remaining 49.9% stake in MyRepublic Broadband
The acquisition, which makes MyRepublic Broadband a wholly owned StarHub subsidiary, comes one day after the years-long speculation of StarHub acquiring M1 from Keppel was quashed when the asset manager announced its proposed sale of the telco to Simba Telecom .
'The acquisition allows StarHub to assume full ownership of MyRepublic Broadband, enabling greater strategic alignment,' StarHub said.
Nikhil Eapen, chief executive of StarHub, said: 'We've laid a strong foundation for growth and with MyRepublic Broadband fully under our wing, we can move faster, go further, and serve customers with even greater clarity and care.'
StarHub in March 2022 received regulatory approval from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to acquire a 50.1 per cent stake in MyRepublic's broadband unit.
IMDA said then that the proposed move could result in a horizontal consolidation as both companies compete in public Internet access services, Internet protocol telephony services and managed data network services.
Shares of StarHub ended Monday 4.9 per cent or S$0.06 lower at S$1.16.
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Chief financial officer Jacky Lo also announced a downward revision to its guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to between 88 per cent and 92 per cent of StarHub's 2024 full-year results. 'To maintain competitive agility in a dynamic telco market, we're taking a more aggressive commercial stance in the second half of 2025.' For instance, StarHub intends to double down on its multi-brand, multi-segment strategy in the consumer market, with both price competition especially for low-cost arm Eight, and higher quality with more benefits for StarHub customers, such as increased roaming allowances. The telco will also ramp investments in cyber security offerings, citing increased threats and the wider national agenda to bolster cyber security. StarHub declared an interim dividend of three cents per share, unchanged from the year-ago period. It reiterated its full-year dividend targe of 6 cents per share or at least 80 per cent of adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders, whichever is higher. At the briefing, StarHub chief executive officer Nikhil Eapen declined to comment on whether StarHub, which had been widely tipped to buy over M1, put in a bid for Singapore's third-placed telco and the terms of such a bid. Simba announced on Aug 11 the purchase of M1's telco business for $1.43 billion, in a surprise sale that marked Singapore's first telco consolidation ever. Mr Eapen stressed that the move to take over the rest of MyRepublic's broadband business was independent of the M1-Simba deal. He said consoidation, as seen in the Simba purchase, is good for the Singapore market. There could be a transitional period between the announcement and completion of the M1-Simba deal with 'fairly aggressive' market activity to come, Mr Eapen noted. StarHub's strategy is to continue to be aggressive in this period, which is the best way to bring about market stabilisation, he said. Mr Eapen also indicated that StarHub is relooking Antina, an existing M1-StarHub joint venture on 5G connectivity infrastructure and airwaves, following M1's sale to Simba. Without naming M1 and Simba explicitly, Mr Eapen noted that both acquirer and acquiree appear interested to continue the tie-up. However, Mr Eapen noted: '(The) spirit of Antina was equal sharing and equal pooling and we have an odd circumstance, where the number three key operator took one band of the 700 megahertz spectrum, which is neither here not there. 'We reserve our rights in a way that will allow us to contend this rather strange idiosyncracy of us having two bands than having one band. 'The second thing is that Antina... in the agreements always contemplated eventualities under change and control, which provide certain mechanisms. So we reserve our rights. 'No option's off the table and we will be looking at it very closely and that's as much as I can say at this point.' StarHub shares fell 0.8 per cent to $1.18 as at the midday trading break, down 0.84 per cent or one cent from the previous day's close.
