Axiata Group Berhad, commonly known as Axiata, formerly known as TM International Berhad, is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n multinational

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

conglomerate with extensive operations in Asia.

The group

Axiata's primary business is in investment holding and the provision of telecommunication and consultancy services on an international scale. Their main focus being

emerging market An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or wer ...

s in

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

. Formerly known as TM International Bhd (TMI), the company was incorporated on 12 June 1992 and was the mobile and international operations arm of Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM). Following the de-merger of TMI from TM, the company was listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad in 2008. On 2 April 2009, TMI underwent a rebranding exercise, launching its new name, Axiata, and a new logo. Their new tagline, Advancing Asia, was also launched, reflecting the direction of the company in focusing their expansion within Asia. Axiata has controlling interests in mobile operators in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, Sri Lanka,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

. The Group also has stakes in non-mobile telecommunication operations in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Their Board of Directors contains: * Tan Sri Shahril Ridza Ridzuan - Chairman, Independent Non-Executive Director * Dato Dr Nik Ramlah Nik Mahmood - Senior Independent Non-Executive Director * Dr David Robert Dean - Independent Non-Executive Director * Khoo Gaik Bee - Independent Non-Executive Director * Thayaparan S Sangarapillai - Independent Non-Executive Director * Tan Sri Dr Halim Shafie - Independent Non-Executive Director * Ong King How - Non-Independent Non-Executive Director, Representative of Khazanah * Syed Ali Syed Salem Alsagoff - Non-Independent Non-Executive Director, Representative of Permodalan Nasional Berhad * Nurhisham Hussein - Non-Independent Non-Executive Director, Representative of Employees Provident Fund

Subsidiary holdings

In their website in 2019, it was announced that Axiata had approximately 150 million subscribers across Asia and Group revenue of MYR25.3 billion (US$5.77 billion) in 2018. It was also reported that the company employed 12,000 people in eleven countries. Axiata's mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand name '

Celcom Celcom Axiata Berhad, DBA Celcom, is the oldest mobile telecommunications provider in Malaysia. Celcom is a member of the Axiata group of companies. Being one of the very few companies in Malaysia to originally obtain a cellular phone licens ...

' in Malaysia, 'XL' in Indonesia, '

Dialog Dialog is an online information service owned by ProQuest, who acquired it from Thomson Reuters in mid-2008. Dialog was one of the predecessors of the World Wide Web as a provider of information, though not in form. The earliest form of the Dial ...

' in Sri Lanka, 'Robi' in Bangladesh, 'Smart' in Cambodia, '

Ncell Ncell Axiata Limited (previously Ncell Private Limited) ( ne, एनसेल आजियाटा) is a mobile service provider from Nepal. Ncell is Nepal's second largest telecommunications company, after Nepal Telecom. The company was found ...

' in Nepal (acquisition from

TeliaSonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in F ...

completed on 12 April 2016), and until recently, 'M1' in Singapore. On 15 February 2019, Axiata sold off its entire shares in 'M1' to Konnectivity Pte Ltd for RM1.65 billion, citing the need for capital reallocation and new priorities in line with its vision to be the Next Generation Digital Champion by 2022. On 4 January 2018, ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...

'' reported that Axiata is planning a domestic

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

of its tower subsidiary edotco. The IPO is expected to raise as much as $500 million. On 21 June 2021, Axiata, Telenor and

Digi Digi may refer to: * Short for "digital" as in digicam, digiscale, digiscrap, digibee *Digi Communications, a Romanian telecommunications company in Romania, Hungary, Spain and Italy *Digi International, an American electronics manufacturer *Digi-K ...

agree to a potential merger of

and Digi to create a stronger telco in Malaysia, coming after advanced discussions that took place two months earlier. If approved, the merger will be completed by the end of 2022. The deal was approved by both Celcom and Digi shareholders on 18 November 2022. The merged company is named CelcomDigi. At completion, Axiata and Telenor will hold equal ownership of 33.1% each in the newly merged company. The company began its operation on 1 December 2022.

Competitors

Axiata Group meets main competitors across the Indonesian market (

Telkomsel PT Telekomunikasi Selular ( trading as Telkomsel) is an Indonesian wireless network provider founded in 1995 and is owned by Telkom Indonesia (65%) and Singtel (35%). It is headquartered in South Jakarta. Telkomsel is the largest cellular ...

). In 2019, Axiata held second place in Indonesia.Empat Tahun Menahkodai XL, Apa Yang Sudah Ditorehkan Dian Siswarini? Accessed April 15, 2019.
/ref> In Bangladesh, Axiata ( Robi) also held second place, and the main competitor is Telenor (

Grameenphone Grameenphone, widely abbreviated as (d/b/a) GP, is the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh, with 83.02 million subscribers (as of January 2022). It is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation. Tel ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Malaysian companies established in 1992 2008 initial public offerings Government-owned companies of Malaysia Companies listed on Bursa Malaysia Telecommunications companies of Malaysia Telecommunications companies established in 1992 Mobile phone companies of Malaysia Multinational companies headquartered in Malaysia Companies based in Kuala Lumpur Corporate spin-offs Malaysian brands Khazanah Nasional Permodalan Nasional Berhad Employees Provident Fund (Malaysia)