Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) is considering offloading its stake in Malaysia’s number one operator Maxis, valued at around $1.8 billion, to a pension fund or another financial investor, according to Bloomberg.

However, no formal auction process has begun and the operator may decide not to sell.

STC has a 25 per cent interest in holding firm Binariang GSM, the controlling shareholder of Maxis, giving it an effective 16.2 per cent interest in the Malaysian operator. Maxis is owned by billionaire T Ananda Krishnan.

STC declined to comment while Maxis did not respond to requests for a comment.

Binariang also owns a majority stake in India’s Aircel, which is merging with Reliance Communications.

Telenor may sell Digi stake
Meanwhile, Telenor is also reportedly considering options for its 49 per cent stake in Malaysia’s Digi, amid fierce competition in the country,

Telenor said in its Q2 results that markets conditions remained “challenging” in Malaysia. ARPU in the country decreased by 6 per cent “due to continued price pressure on international traffic and domestic data, combined with decline in voice revenues”, it said in July.

GSMA Intelligence data highlights how ripe competition is in the country between the leading operators in terms of connections.

Maxis is the top operator in the country with 12.8 million connections, followed by Digi (12.3 million) and Celcom (12.1 million).