Robi gets conditional permission from Axiata to start IPO talks

Robi's parent company Axiata Group Berhad gave conditional permission to the second largest mobile carrier to start process for raising Tk 523.80 crore from the market.

At its board meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the Axiata Group made the decision yesterday and announced in Malaysian stock exchange today, a top executive of Robi confirmed to The Daily Star.

"We got the conditional permission from our parent company for a prospective listing in the capital market through an initial public offering (IPO)," said Shahed Alam, Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer at Robi Axiata Limited.

Among the conditions Axiata Group has given Robi is to reduce the corporate tax at least 10% points, which is 45% at present, Alam added.

The second one is discussing with the government to withdraw the two percent minimum income tax on over-all revenue, which the government has imposed from the current fiscal, said Alam.

According to Axiata declaration, they have plans to offload about 52.38 crore shares at Tk 10 each on the Dhaka and Chattogram stock exchanges.

Robi has appointed IDLC Investments Ltd as the issue manager for the IPO but so far they have not applied for listing.