StarHub, SCV agree to a merger

The two companies' shareholders have signed an agreement on the principal terms for the merger but did not revealing specifics.

According to a StarHub spokesperson, the final merger documents will be signed in a few months after Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) shareholders approve the merger. She added that the new entity has yet to be named.

SCV's current shareholders are Media Corporation of Singapore, ST Telecommunications and Singapore Press Holdings while NTT Communications Corporation, ST Telemedia and British Telecommunications have stakes in StarHub.

"We are delighted to be joining forces with SCV. Their strengths and ours complement each other very well, which will boost our collective capabilities to offer services at affordable prices to all residences in Singapore," StarHub president and CEO Terry Clontz said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) gave StarHub the green light "to fulfil its local access network obligation through a merger with SCV", the regulator said in a statement.

According to the IDA, StarHub has a license obligation to roll out local access network in residential areas, as part of its nationwide network.

The regulator added that StarHub has two options--the latter could either "construct and lay its own local access network in the residential area or effect the rollout through alternative means acceptable to IDA".

Last September, StarHub informed the IDA that it preferred to fulfil its obligation via "a commercial tie up with SCV, delivering the local access network and services by using the complementary infrastructure of the two companies", the IDA noted.