True Corporation Public Company Limited (SET: TRUE) is expected to sell THB 60 billion worth of its assets to Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (SET: DIF), which it holds 20.56% shareholding, by next year.
The proposal will be submitted to the Board of Directors by the end of this year, the source told ‘Kaohoon’. The selling assets consist of telecommunication towers, which were acquired from the merger with DTAC (former listed companies), and the company will gradually sell these assets to fund its 5G business.
Kasikorn Securities expected DIF to borrow over 40 billion baht and raise capital for over 20 billion baht to fund this acquisition. This process should not have any impact on the dividend paid by the fund due to its longer rental contract.
Meanwhile, Tisco Securities noted that if such a sale does take place, it would be positive for TRUE in the short term. Tisco noted that it believed the asset sale could happen in two rounds. First, TRUE could first sell 6,000 of its towers (35% of TRUE’s towers pre-amalgamation) and 550k core km of fiber optic cables (FOC). Tisco estimated the value of these assets is 48 billion baht total or Bt1.4/share.
The value of the second round of the asset sale would depend on the final outcome of network integration (Tisco expected it to be completed in 2028).
