(Reuters) – Norway’s Telenor and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) have agreed to merge their telecom units in Thailand, the Oslo-based company said in a statement on Monday, in a deal valued at about 282.8 billion baht ($8.61 billion).
The deal, which Telenor had flagged on Friday, would merge the telecom operations of Telenor’s Total Access Communication (Dtac) and CP Group’s True Corporation.
The offer of 47.76 baht ($1.45) a share represents a premium of 15.8% to Dtac’s last close as of Friday and the offer of 5.09 baht ($0.1549) a share represents a premium of 17.8% to True’s close on Friday.
Telenor and C.P. group will aim for an ownership share of around one-third each in the merged entity, the company said.
Shares of both Dtac and True were up on Monday.
The combined company will be listed on the Thai stock exchange.
($1 = 32.8600 baht)
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
