Mobile-8 in $413 mln shr issue to buy Smart Telecom

PT Mobile-8 Telecom (FREN.JK), an Indonesian fixed-wireless phone provider, plans to raise 3.7 trillion rupiah ($413 million) in a rights issue to buy PT Smart Telecom, an executive from the company said on Thursday.

"We hope the process will be completed before the end of this year," Merza Fachys, Mobile-8's chief executive officer told Reuters.

Smart Telecom is owned by Sinar Mas Group, one of Indonesia's biggest business conglomerates. It is currently estimated to have 2.5 million subscribers, while Mobile-8 is estimated to have 3 million users.

Indonesia has one of the most crowded telecommunications market in the world, with 11 operators competing for nearly 240 million people.

A unit of Sinar Mas Group will be the standby buyer for the rights issue. ($1=8950 Rupiah). Source: Reuters