Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Historic merger marks new chapter in Malaysia's digitalisation journey: We are in pole position.

30/11/2022

11 minute read

Share

Digi Telenor Asia

For over 20 years, Digi has empowered Malaysian society, connected people to what matters most, and fueled the country's digital transition. With Celcom Digi commencing operations on 1 December, the next phase of Telenor in Asia begins.

This is truly a special day, both for our customers in Malaysia and Telenor, comments Sigve Brekke, President & CEO of Telenor Group, when asked about the first day of operations for the new Malaysian telco Celcom Digi.

The company is in a pole position when it comes to creating more customer value, and I'm confident that Celcom Digi will play a key role in setting Malaysia up for the digital future, says Brekke.

The newly established company, which is a result of the merger of Axiata subsidiary Celcom and Telenor subsidiary Digi, will create an approximately USD10 billion converged operator in Malaysia. Telenor and Axiata will be equal owners and operational influence through Board representation. Telenor representatives on the Celcom Digi board include J rgen C. Arentz Rostrup (Deputy Chair), Rita Skj rvik, and H kon Kj l.

The merger is a clear sign of how Telenor is executing on the strategy we presented at the Capital Markets Day in September, underlines Brekke.

Read also: Axiata and Telenor announce the successful completion of the Celcom and Digi merger

Sigve Brekke, President & CEO of Telenor Group, presented the strategy for a Reshaped Telenor at Telenors Capital Markets Day 2022 at Telenor HQ Fornebu.

On track with Asia ambitionsIt was in April 2021 that Telenor and Axiata first announced that they were in advanced discussions to merge their Malaysian operations. In addition to value creation and playing an important role in Malaysia's digital aspiration, the objective of the merger was to establish a leading market player that could have a greater impact and be a strong local partner for high-value customers, enterprises, and SMEs.

The new entity is taking the best from both companies. It's well positioned to drive innovation and high-skilled employment, increase consumer choice for digital needs, and explore opportunities within 5G services, AI, and IoT, says J rgen C. Arentz Rostrup, EVP and Head of Telenor Asia.

Telenor and Axiata will be equal partners in the merged company, with 33.1 percent ownership each. Rostrup calls the merger a momentous milestone for Telenor's work to build scale and profitable business as well as manage risk more efficiently in the Asia region.

Our ambition is to become a leading operator in several markets because we believe it's a good way to increase value for businesses, consumers, and shareholders. This mega merger in Malaysia puts us in the right direction and provides a solid platform for sustainable long-term growth. Structural partnerships or an initial public offering are future options for Telenor Asia, says Rostrup.

In Thailand, Telenor and CP Group aim to complete an amalgamation of the subsidiaries dtac and True within the first quarter of 2023.

Sigve Brekke and J rgen C. Arentz Rostrup visited Malaysia in June 2022, when the merger process received regulatory clearance from MCMC, the Malaysian regulator.

A new dawn for Telenor in MalaysiaFor Telenor, the merger signals a new dawn for the company's history in Malaysia - a history that spans back to 1999, when the company first bought a stake in Digi.

Digi was the first major investment Telenor made in Asia. For 22 years, we learnt about Malaysia and its dynamic competitive market. We are proud of how Digi has developed into an innovative and customer focused telecom operator and contributed to empowering the Malaysian society and helped people connect to what matters most to them, Brekke reminisces.

Telenor's journey in Asia began two years earlier with Bangladesh in 1997. 25 years later, Telenor has over 165 million customers in the region and has, for more than two decades, supported national digital ambitions across Southeast Asia.

Improving people's lives and empowering societies has, is, and always will be Telenor's foundation for growth in Asia. Seeing how mobile connectivity and digitalisation impact people confirms our companies' important contribution to societal development, says Rostrup, who refers to a recent Telenor Asia study of 8,000 people in South and Southeast Asia. In the survey, a whopping 93 per cent said that mobile connectivity improved their quality of life.

However, as mobile connectivity evolves from a nice-to-have to a must-have, both Brekke and Rostrup believe that to reap the full benefits of how new technologies, such as cloud computing, analytics, and storage, can further empower societies, telcos need to think differently.

For Telenor's operations in Asia, our ability to provide value to customers and society require new thinking. With Celcom Digi, we can stay competitive, drive growth, build scale, and enhance execution capabilities and innovation momentum, says Rostrup, who oversees the company's operations in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand from Singapore.

The formation of Telenor Asia was announced in October 2022, and is a continuation of Telenor's unified Asia business which was established two years earlier. Telenor Asia is a more autonomous regional entity with headquarters in Singapore that has complete oversight and responsibility for the company's operations in the region.

The merged telco Celcom Digi will commence operations on 1 December 2022.

Thanks to all Digizens The Telenor you see today is not the Telenor you will see in the future, proclaimed Brekke at Telenor's Capital Markets Day this year. Taking the number one position in Malaysia and establishing a more autonomous Telenor Asia entity are parts of the reshaped Telenor that will ensur
LINK: https://www.telenor.com/media/newsroom/announcement/historic-merger-ma...
See more stories from telenor

Europe Stories

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

23/07/2026

Record-breaking World Cup has advertisers cheering

Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 23rd, JULY, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), stitched 11.57 billion one-to-one addressable advertisem...

23/07/2026

Low End Candy release Preverb

Quickly creates reverse reverb effects Low End Candy have recently released a new plug-in that offers a quick and simple way to create reverse reverb effect...

23/07/2026

Expressive E Noisy 2.6 arrives

New engines, resonators, effects & more Expressive E's versatile soft synth has just been treated to an update that greatly expands its sonic range. Noi...

23/07/2026

SGL Carbon expands photovoltaic capacity at its Ort im Innkreis site

SGL Carbon has further expanded its photovoltaic capacity at its Ort im Innkreis site in Austria. With the commissioning of new PV carports, the sites solar sys...

23/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz presents new software for three-phase power analysis on MXO series oscilloscopes

Rohde & Schwarz presents new software for three-phase power analysis on MXO seri...

23/07/2026

Why The Next Big Opportunity in Sports Lies Outside the Stadium

In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni explores how the launch of Play Snooker reflects a wider shift in sports economics - from monetising peak broadcast audiences ...

23/07/2026

Scaling Smart with Vivid Broadcast

Download Now! To receive a short case study showcasing Vivid Broadcast's audio setup, please enter the following details: -- First Name* First Name ...

23/07/2026

X-Rite Pantone and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Partner to Advance Digital Color Education

X-Rite Pantone and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Partner to Advance Digi...

23/07/2026

New Samsung Galaxy Foldable range available now to pre-order on Sky Mobile

Thursday 23 July 2026 New Samsung Galaxy Foldable range available now to pre-order on Sky Mobile Sky Mobile, the award-winning network voted this year by Expe...

23/07/2026

Jason Statham leads Sky Original action thriller MUTINY in explosive new trailer

Thursday 23 July 2026 Jason Statham leads Sky Original action thriller MUTINY in explosive new trailerTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy optio...

23/07/2026

Riedel Implements RefCam and Easy5G for the First Time at an International Soccer Match

Wuppertal July 23, 2026 Riedel Implements RefCam and Easy5G for the First Time...

23/07/2026

Centra returning as the official food partner of The Traitors Ireland

RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year. Ce...

23/07/2026

Honda sponsors Today with David McCullagh on RT Radio 1

RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am. Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...

23/07/2026

RT NEWS ANNOUNCES NEW JOURNALIST REPORTING FROM ACROSS CORK AND KERRY

RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region Working al...

22/07/2026

ERA II Vocal Codex from Eduardo Tarilonte

Library now available in Engine Player Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...

22/07/2026

Cloudvocals improved FlashTrack FT-15 DSP Microphone

All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...

22/07/2026

Electro-Harmonix launch the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2

The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...

22/07/2026

Clear-Com Delivers Integrated Communications for Fryderyk Awards Gala in Krakw

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

22/07/2026

Sky Documentaries announces The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door

A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...

22/07/2026

Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement with Spotify, SiriusXM, Triton Digital, Acast, and Libysn

Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...

22/07/2026

Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership

Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...

22/07/2026

RT PUBLISHES 2025 ANNUAL REPORT

RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...

22/07/2026

Documentary on film censorship in Ireland coming to RT

In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...

21/07/2026

High Interest, limited resources: AI in Mongolia's newsrooms

New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...

21/07/2026

elysia Channex Studio now available

High-end analogue channel strip boasts plug-in recall Originally revealed as a prototype back at NAMM 2024, the Channex Studio channel strip represented a b...

21/07/2026

Musik Hack announce HyFi mastering platform

Relies on same DSP as plug-in range Musik Hack's line-up has been influenced heavily by founder Stan Greene's work as a mixing engineer, and their M...

21/07/2026

Dirty Boy Jr. Series from Warm Audio

Official collaboration with boutique builder Dirty Boy Pedals Warm Audio have just announced the launch of a new guitar pedal range created in collaboration...

21/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz showcases broad range of EMC test solutions at EMC+SIPI 2026 in Dallas, Texas

Rohde & Schwarz showcases broad range of EMC test solutions at EMC SIPI 2026 in ...

21/07/2026

X-Rite Pantone and NIFT Partner to Build Color Management Skills for India's Fashion and Textile Workforce

X-Rite Pantone and NIFT Partner to Build Color Management Skills for India's...

21/07/2026

Bluepeak Taps Harmonic to Speed Up Fiber Rollout and Expand into MDUs

Harmonics cOS Virtualized Broadband Platform and Pearl Remote OLTs Enable Flexible PON Migration, While SeaStar Optical Node Powers Cost-Effective Multi-Gigabit...

21/07/2026

RT announces biggest ever year for new drama

160 hours of Irish storytelling for 2026 KIN and The Walsh Sisters return RT has today unveiled its most ambitious drama slate ever, with a record-breakin...

20/07/2026

Graph Tech Guitar Labs open UK Online Store

Product range now readily available in the UK Graph Tech Guitar Labs have just announced the launch of a new UK Online Store that makes it quicker and easie...

20/07/2026

Audeze launch the Maxwell 2 ANC

Popular headset gains active noise cancellation The Maxwell headet was Audeze's first foray into the gaming world, and thanks to its Dolby Atmos compati...

20/07/2026

Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal customers when they choose Sky Mobile

Monday 20 July 2026 Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal custome...

20/07/2026

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communities to Amazon DSP

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communit...

20/07/2026

RT secures exclusive free-to-air Irish rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup Final sets new RT Player record as the most-streamed single event in the platform's history Over 1 million viewers watched live on RT 2 as ...

19/07/2026

Acustica reveal Mystic 2

Channel strip plug-in gets upgraded Acustica Audio's vintage-inspired channel strip plug-in has just been treated to an update that expands its tonal ra...

18/07/2026

IK Multimedia add Brown Panel Signature Collection to TONEX

Captures nine sought-after Fender amps IK Multimedia's latest TONEX expansion captures a selection of nine rare Brown Panel' Fender amps that were ...

18/07/2026

Frap Tools update the Magnolia

Latest batch ships alongside firmware update Since being unveiled at Superbooth 2025, Frap Tools' debut polysynth has been met with widespread praise, a...

17/07/2026

Sonuscore introduce Elysion Elements

Full engine access with reduced soundset Sonuscore have steadily been introducing a selection of reduced-cost and free versions of their flagship products r...

17/07/2026

Arturia AstroLab Silver & KeyLab Mk3 Ultra

Two new special-edition models revealed Over the past week, Arturia have launched special-edition versions of both their premium MIDI controller and stage p...

17/07/2026

Dirk Ulrich reacquires Plugin Alliance & Brainworx

Original founder now back at the helm In a message posted on his personal social media accounts, Dirk Ulrich has announced that both Plugin Alliance and Bra...

17/07/2026

Few mics are trusted on an antique Stradivarius copy 4099 is

From intimate acoustic settings to large-scale festival stages, her focus has remained constant: preserving the true natural voice of the violin in every perfor...

17/07/2026

RT Radio 1 continues its summer of stories, music, sport and conversation

New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule RT Radio 1 is...

17/07/2026

Dith, Jacqui and Louise bring hurling fans together ahead of the All-Ireland Finals

Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...