After being constantly pressured through legal-suit of monopoly acts in Indonesia's mobile telecommunication industry. On a press release delivered Saturday, June 7th 2008, Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) announced that they have sold their stake of ownership at Indosat to Qatar Telecom (QTEL). The $ 1.8 billion in cash transaction is completed through selling of Asia Mobile Holding's (AMH) Indosat share directly to QTEL. AMH owns Indonesia Communications Ltd that legally registered as owner of Indosat's 40% share.
In effect; the move is also "inline" with the Indonesian court's verdict of Temasek (STT's owner) violating the anti-monopoly regulation. The court's has fined Temasek and its units and ordered to sell their minority stake in either Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) or majority stake in Indosat.
Back in November 2007, when the court's verdict are being issued, STT vice president Sio Tat Hiang is quoted to say: "We invested in Indosat to create a world class telecom company and we will continue to pursue that goal. The idea of selling the stake hasn't crossed our minds". Looks like his boss (Temasek) has now finally choose to sell their majority stake in Indosat to their 'strategic-partner' QTEL, as Telkomsel might be too precious to sell.
QTEL and STT has formed a strategic alliance through AMH which currently also owns majority stake of ownership at Starhub, Singapore's #2 mobile operator.
