Who is buying Singapore’s 3rd largest telecom provider M1 in $780M deal?

Simba, the fourth largest telcom provider in the country and long-time rival to M1, is owned by Australia-listed Tuas, which was incorporated in March 2020 as part of the telco giant Australian TPG Group, according to The Straits Times.

Following the June 2020 merger of TPG Australia and Vodafone Hutchison Australia, the Singapore mobile business was split from the wider TPG Group, with all its shares transferred to Tuas.

Commuters use mobile phones on the Mass Rapid Transit train in Singapore on March 18, 2020. Photo by AFP

Simba, formerly TPG Singapore, became Singapore’s fourth telco in 2016 after winning an airwave auction from the government.

In 2022, Simba rebranded itself after the usage rights to the TPG brand expired.

Operating solely in Singapore, the telco spent several years building its mobile and fixed broadband networks, officially launching commercial services in 2020.

Its first offering was a SIM-only plan with 50GB of data for $10 per month – the cheapest on the market at the time.

Australian billionaire David Teoh serves as executive chairman of Tuas and chairman of Simba. The telco’s CEO, Richard Tan, is based in Singapore.

As of December last year, Simba had over one million mobile subscribers, ranking as the fourth-largest telco in the country.

Singtel leads the market with 4.5 million subscribers, while StarHub and M1 each have around two million customers.

M1’s operations and services will continue without disruption while the deal awaits government approval, according to a spokesperson from Keppel, the owner of M1.

"The proposed transaction offers a strategic path to sustainable growth for Singapore's telco sector," Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua said in a statement, as cited by Reuters.

Keppel said the merger will benefit consumers by consolidating the market and leveraging synergies between the two telcos.

Keppel, which first invested in M1 in 1994 as a founding shareholder, said Simba had submitted the strongest bid among interested parties, and its combination with M1 is expected to create further revenue opportunities.

"M1 and Simba are a highly synergistic combination," Loh said.

Together, they can scale more efficiently, optimise infrastructure, and accelerate 5G and digital investments, greatly enhancing service quality while contributing to a more resilient, future-ready telco industry, he added.