M Link 'in merger talks with Siam2You'
Handset distributor M Link Asia Corp Plc is in talks with well-known mobile-phone content provider Siam2You Plc on a takeover deal, as part of M Link's strategy to nurture its content business, an industry source said yesterday.
The source said Siam2You had offered all its shares to M Link at a very high price. M Link would use the Bt40 million it received from disposing of its stake in its Portal Net subsidiary to Samart Telecoms Plc to buy the Siam2You shares. "M Link needs the new business to increase its revenues after selling its flagship, Portal Net," the source said. Wanchai Priboonbaramee, Siam2You's chief financial officer, declined to confirm the talks with M Link but did say Siam2You was looking for a strategic partner. Siam2You has a capitalisation of Bt82 million in the Market for Alterna-tive Investment. M Link is coming under intensifying competition in the mobile-phone retail market following the recent merger of its two main competitors, IEC and Blisstel. Last year, M Link and major mobile-phone distributor Samart i-Mobile Plc were in partnership discussions but gave up on the plan, because Samart decided it could stand on its own feet. M Link's announcement on Monday of its divestment of Portal Net indicates that its co-founders Monthatip Kovitcharoenkul and Yaowapa Wongsawat, sisters of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are pulling out of the business of installing IT systems for state agencies and enterprises. Portal Net, which was set up to bid for state IT jobs, has been under close public scrutiny for any signs of cashing in on its political connections. One of its major projects is providing software leasing to the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA). Portal Net is a member of the consortium that clinched the Bt3.2-billion PEA deal in 2004. At that time, Portal Net said it would continue aggressively bidding for new public projects but changed its mind recently, following the beginning of the political fallout from the present government. A business source said that soon after the share disposal in Portal Net, Yaowapa, who is a leading member of the Thai Rak Thai Party founded by her brother Thaksin, would retire from politics. Yaowapa's daughter, Chinnicha, also has no interest in jumping into politics, as she wants to dedicate her time to developing her property and construction company, Wyncoast Industrial Park Plc, into a top logistics firm. The Wongsawat family owns more than 50 per cent of Wyncoast. Usanee Mongkolporn, Sirivish Toomgum The Nation
|
