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Tag: XL Axiata

  • XL Axiata upgrading fiber network for 5G era

    XL Axiata upgrading fiber network for 5G era

    Indonesia’s XL Axiata has engaged Infinera to modernize both its South Sumatra terrestrial network and its Singapore-to-Jakarta subsea network for the 5G era.

    Under the agreement, Infinera will provide its XTC platform for the South Sumatra terrestrial network and the  Jakarta-Bangka-Batam-Singapore (B2JS) cable.

    The XTC platform is powered by Infinera’s Infinite Capacity Engine solution, which is designed to provide scalable multi-terabit optical super-channel capacity for distances from metro to subsea.

    XL Axiata CTO Yessie Dianty Yosetya said this additional capacity will allow XL Axiata to prepare its network for the arrival of 5G in Indonesia.

    “As one of Southeast Asia’s largest economies, modernizing the network in Indonesia to ensure 5G-readiness is a priority,” she said.

    “Our partnership with Infinera and Lintas Teknologi has been critical to help us achieve this milestone. Further, the performance of Infinera’s ICE4 solution for this subsea and terrestrial network upgrade enables the delivery of cloud-scale capacity that is simple and operationally efficient, with the benefit of intelligent OTN switching that accelerates our ability to deliver services faster.”

    XL Axiata’s transport infrastructure spans over 45,000km of fiber, while its mobile services cover 94% of Indonesia’s population. The company is a subsidiary of Malaysia-based Axiata Group.

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  • XL Axiata to form JV with Indosat Ooredoo

    XL Axiata to form JV with Indosat Ooredoo

    Indonesia’s XL Axiata has revealed it will enter a joint venture with Indosat Ooredoo to provide consultancy services in future network collaboration between the two operators.

    The JV, PT One Indonesia Synergy, will be 50-50 owned by the two companies.

    In a statement to the Bursa Malaysia, XL parent Axiata Group said it is expected that the joint venture will “provide consultancy services in future network collaboration. The transaction parties are in the process of jointly exploring the possibility of entering into such a collaboration.”

    XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo agreed in January to share 4G infrastructure in several cities as a possible first step towards the long-discussed plans to form such a network sharing agreement.

    Indonesia’s telecom ministry has also been pressuring the nation’s ten mobile operators to merge or jointly deploy networksto address crowding in the market, although this mainly applies to the smaller mobile operators struggling to compete with Indosat, XL and rival Telkomsel.

    The stock market statement adds that the forming of the JV is not expected to have a material impact on the group’s financial results for the current year.

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  • XL Axiata to sell more telecom towers for $250m

    XL Axiata to sell more telecom towers for $250m

    Indonesia’s XL Axiata has arranged to sell 2,500 more telecom towers for 3.56 trillion rupiah ($250 million) as part of an ongoing asset management reorgnization.

    XL has agreed to sell the towers to local tower operator Professional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo) and rent most of them back for 10 years as the anchor tenant.

    Announcing the move, XL said it expects to benefit from significant capex and opex savings, and plans to use proceeds from the sale to help further reduce its debt.

    The operator is also expected to use the divestment to help more aggressively roll out 4G services.

    XL already sold 3,500 towers to PT Solusi Tunas Pratama (SUPR) as part of a deal arranged during 2014, and used the proceeds to reduce its debt burden.

    In related news, credit ratings agency Moody’s has recently published a report predicting that telecom tower companies in Indonesia as well as India are well-placed to continue growing.

    Tower companies in the two markets are the most developed in Asia, Moody’s said. But the company noted that geographical, operational and regulatory differences between the two countries will affect their growth rates and financial performance.

    “We expect continued growth in both markets as mobile operators, building out and strengthening their third- and fourth-generation (3G and 4G) footprints, will seek to lease tower space and sell more of their own towers,” Moody’s assistant vice president and analyst Nidhi Dhruv said.

    “In this context, we expect overall year-on-year revenue growth of about 8%-10% for tower operators in both countries during the next one to two years.”

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  • Malaysian Axiata’s Indonesia arm said to weigh US$500mil fundraising

    Malaysian Axiata’s Indonesia arm said to weigh US$500mil fundraising

    PT XL Axiata, the most indebted of Indonesia’s listed wireless carriers, is considering raising as much as US$500mil next year, people with knowledge of the matter said.

    The company, a unit of Malaysia’s Axiata Group Bhd., is weighing several fundraising options including selling stock to existing investors through a rights offering, according to the people. It could sell shares in the first half of next year depending on market conditions, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is private.

    XL Axiata, led by chief executive officer Dian Siswarini, said earlier this year it’s seeking to strengthen its balance sheet and focus on more profitable subscribers. The company’s net debt has more than doubled in three years to 25.7 trillion rupiah (US$1.8bil) at the end of September, from 12.5 trillion rupiah the same time in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    “The potential fundraising through stock issuance would be credit positive for XL Axiata,” Nitin Soni, a Singapore-based director at Fitch Ratings, said by phone. “It will strengthen the highly-indebted company’s balance sheet by increasing its equity base and repaying some existing debt.”

    Fitch has a BBB rating on XL Axiata, or two grades above junk, while Moody’s Investors Service rates the company Ba1, the highest non-investment grade rating. XL Axiata shares rose 3.1% at the close in Jakarta yesterday, the most in a week.

    Turina Farouk, a spokeswoman for XL Axiata, said in a mobile-phone text message that the company was “still open for any options” regarding raising funds.

    XL Axiata has accumulated total debt equal to 216% of its total equity at the end of the latest quarter, the highest ratio among Indonesia’s eight listed wireless carriers, the Bloomberg-compiled data show. It said in October that it eliminated all of its unhedged US dollar borrowings, repaying part of the US$580mil of unhedged debt early and converting the rest to rupiah borrowings.

    The company bought Saudi Telecom Co’s Indonesian unit in 2013 to increase its service coverage, paying a nominal fee to acquire the business and assuming US$865mil of the carrier’s debt. It sold 3,500 telecommunication towers last year to PT Solusi Tunas Pratama for 5.6 trillion rupiah.

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  • Axiata’s Indonesia unit plans RM1.4bil sukuk programme

    Axiata’s Indonesia unit plans RM1.4bil sukuk programme

    Axiata Group Bhd’s Indonesian unit, PT XL Axiata Tbk, plans to establish a five trillion rupiah (RM1.4bil) sukuk programme to optimise its balance sheet and improve its capital efficiency.

    In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Axiata said the sukuk programme would be established under a two-year shelf registration programme.

    The first tranche or Shelf Sukuk Ijarah I XL Axiata Tranche I Year 2015 will see the issuance of up to 1.5 trillion rupiah based on the syariah principle of Ijarah, with the payment of Ujrah to be made quarterly in arrears.

    The Tranche I sukuk will have four series, with Series A having a maturity of 370 calendar days, Series B (three years), Series C (five years) and Series D (seven years).

    The net proceeds from Tranche I sukuk are to be utilised for working capital purposes to support PT XL Axiata’s business activity in terms of 2G radio frequency fee payment to the Government for the period of December 2015 to  December 2016.

    The Tranche I sukuk has been assigned a rating of AAA(idn) by PT Fitch Ratings Indonesia.

    A major cellular provider in Indonesia, PT XL Axiata is 66.43% owned by Axiata through Axiata Investments (Indonesia) Sdn Bhd, and currently serves 62.9 million subscribers.

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  • XL Axiata launches LTE in Lombok; Indosat to accelerate 4G rollout

    XL Axiata launches LTE in Lombok; Indosat to accelerate 4G rollout

    Indonesian mobile operator XL Axiata today launched a commercial 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service in the 1800MHz band in Mataram, Lombok. The firm’s director of service management Ongki Kurniawan explained that the decision to choose Lombok was based on its ‘special relationship’ with the area. ‘Since entering this region, we [have built an] affinity [with the people living here]. People accept and have confidence in XL when it comes to their telecommunication needs, and [that relationship is] now evolving into data and internet services. Our market share currently stands at more than 85% in Lombok,’ he said, ahead of the official launch of the service in the area.

    XL Axiata has deployed 14 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) in the Capital NTB area, as well as covering centres of government and business, and some shopping centres such as Mataram Mall. The cellco claims it can offer peak download speeds of 100Mbps on the new network which is supported by a range of affordable 4G handsets and devices from the likes of LG, Sony, Huawei, Sharp, Siemens and Lenovo. Its new service also supports Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) it says and, having launched in Mataram, XL Axiata is now looking to roll out 1800MHz BTS in Bandung, Surabaya, Denpasar and Jakarta later this year. Additionally, the operator notes that cities that already have 4G LTE service capability in the 900MHz band – namely Medan, Bogor, and Yogyakarta – will also benefit from 1800MHz services in the near future. To date, it claims to have deployed more than 200 LTE-900 BTS in these cities and has amassed a total of 200,000 4G subscribers.

    In a separate development, XL Axiata rival PT Indosat claims that it is ready to accelerate its own 4G rollout throughout Indonesia. The cellco says its readiness to speed up its LTE deployment is thanks to its nationwide Indosat Network Modernisation programme which is designed ultimately to upgrade its entire infrastructure to support LTE with peak speeds of 185Mbps/41Mbps (down/uplink). The national programme kicked off two years ago, initially with the aim of boosting coverage, improving internet access speeds and providing clearer voice call quality (i.e. high definition voice) services. By the end of this year Indosat aims to have upgraded 42 cities and their environs (equivalent to districts/municipalities across Indonesia), under the expansion plan. IndoTelko quotes Indosat head of corporate communications, Fuad Fachroeddin, as saying that in April it launched its Super 4G-LTEservice in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali, and aims to add other cities throughout Indonesia in the near future. ‘We are optimistic we will soon be able to accelerate the deployment of 4G LTE throughout Indonesia under the ongoing Network Modernisation programme,’ he said.

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