BANGKOK (NNT) - True Corporation (True) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) have announced their agreement to merge and create a new telecom giant, forming the second-largest mobile operator in the country.

 

The executive boards of both companies have decided to call the merged company True Corporation and a joint shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for February 23 to approve the new corporate structure and other details related to the amalgamation. The merger will be completed within the first quarter of this year and the companies will continue to serve customers under the existing True Move and DTAC brands for at least the next three years.

 

The proposed merger will result in a total of 55 million mobile subscribers, compared with 45 million for the current market leader Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS).

 

True and DTAC have noted that the merger is about more than just the mobile market, and plan to build on True’s existing strengths in broadband internet, pay TV, and digital services, as well as investing in new technologies that will benefit consumers. The joint shareholders’ meeting will also vote on board members for the new company, with Manat Manavutiveth, the current co-president of True, nominated as the chief executive officer, and Sharad Mehrotra, the current CEO of DTAC, as his deputy.

 

True and DTAC will each hold a 30% stake in the new company. TRUE shares closed on Thursday on the SET at 4.84 baht, down 2 satang, in trade worth 267 million baht. DTAC shares rose 25 satang to 46.25 baht, in turnover worth 1.1 billion baht.

 

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) set the condition that the companies will continue to serve their customers under the existing True Move and DTAC brands for at least the next three years. A consumer group challenged the NBTC decision in the Central Administrative Court in December, but it rejected a petition for an injunction to halt the deal.

 

Source: https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG230113105255650

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-01-13

 

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Edited January 13, 20233 yr by MJCM

Maths was never my strength, but if the merger results in 10 million more subscribers than AIS, how can they still be in second place ?

33 minutes ago, MJCM said:

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Agree. Now we have another conglomerate taking the country a step closer to no real competition which means customers pay more.

 

Plus True is a fully owner subsidiary of the biggest existing conglomera CP.

 

And this breaks the suposedly serious Thai laws on this subject, not respected by Thai government agencies. 

 

Total bad news for Thailand and Thai citizens. 

 

Edited January 13, 20233 yr by scorecard

Glad I left DTAC a couple of years ago. Post-pay on AIS has been excellent. Sad that the merger of TRUE/DTAC will mean less competition and choice for consumers. Expect prices to rise.

 

Edited January 13, 20233 yr by soi3eddie

All so The new company has 55millon subscribers  ,AIS has 45 million,total 100 million Thailand has a population of 60 million .

They must be using phone users and internet users as separate customers,when a lot ie me use both on my mobile phone .

And True TV must be separate ,when a lot of customers will be using all 3?

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

True and DTAC will each hold a 30% stake in the new company.

Who will hold the remaining 40%? And why do both get the same amount of shares alloted when True is worth much more than DTAC?

Surprised 4 hours after this OP there is little comment.

 

This is very bad news, sailing against the wind of any reasonable interpretation of competition laws, restricting consumer choice and free market dynamics. It is symptomatic of a dysfunctional society, economy and bureaucracy. .

 

Virtually impossible these days to avoid passing at least some of your hard-earned to CP.

Maybe they should change their name to OCP (a la Robocop) to reflect satire becoming reality, at least in Thailand. 

 

11 hours ago, scorecard said:

Agree. Now we have another conglomerate taking the country a step closer to no real competition which means customers pay more.

 

Plus True is a fully owner subsidiary of the biggest existing conglomera CP.

 

And this breaks the suposedly serious Thai laws on this subject, not respected by Thai government agencies. 

 

Total bad news for Thailand and Thai citizens. 

 

Change to AiS easy... I did 5 years ago, brilliant service.

True as an organisation is hopeless. Maybe Dtac will improve them.

19 hours ago, scorecard said:

Agree. Now we have another conglomerate taking the country a step closer to no real competition which means customers pay more.

 

Plus True is a fully owner subsidiary of the biggest existing conglomera CP.

 

And this breaks the suposedly serious Thai laws on this subject, not respected by Thai government agencies. 

 

Total bad news for Thailand and Thai citizens. 

 

Does this really rise to a Chicken Little moment?

 

Could be a win all around, wait and see. True's always been good to me, DTAC and AIS weren't. If DTAC tech can improve True and extend the reach, great.

 

5 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

True as an organisation is hopeless. Maybe Dtac will improve them.

I have not found them to be hopeless!

20 hours ago, scorecard said:

Agree. Now we have another conglomerate taking the country a step closer to no real competition which means customers pay more.

 

Plus True is a fully owner subsidiary of the biggest existing conglomera CP.

 

And this breaks the suposedly serious Thai laws on this subject, not respected by Thai government agencies. 

 

Total bad news for Thailand and Thai citizens. 

 

Yep.

 

Monopolies are never good for consumers; just look at U.S, telecoms and their “don’t like our service? Tough <deleted> - what are you gonna do about it?” business models.

18 hours ago, kickstart said:

All so The new company has 55millon subscribers  ,AIS has 45 million,total 100 million Thailand has a population of 60 million .

They must be using phone users and internet users as separate customers,when a lot ie me use both on my mobile phone .

And True TV must be separate ,when a lot of customers will be using all 3?

From the OP,

"...the merger is about more than just the mobile market, and plan to build on True’s existing strengths in broadband internet, pay TV, and digital services".

21 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Maths was never my strength, but if the merger results in 10 million more subscribers than AIS, how can they still be in second place ?

The OP didn't state that True/Dtac would have more subscribers, it described the merged companies as being the largest mobile operator.  There is more than one way to measure the size of a company.

18 hours ago, eisfeld said:

22 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

True and DTAC will each hold a 30% stake in the new company.

Who will hold the remaining 40%?

It'll be a listed company, so anyone can!  Google the companies' shareholders, all the information is public.

Edited January 14, 20233 yr by Liverpool Lou

6 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

True as an organisation is hopeless.

On what do you base that profound critique, anything rational?    

So what did the Thai so-called monopolies commission have to say about this?

On 1/14/2023 at 3:44 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

On what do you base that profound critique, anything rational?    

Dealing with them.

On 1/13/2023 at 9:08 PM, kickstart said:

All so The new company has 55millon subscribers  ,AIS has 45 million,total 100 million Thailand has a population of 60 million .

They must be using phone users and internet users as separate customers,when a lot ie me use both on my mobile phone .

And True TV must be separate ,when a lot of customers will be using all 3?

Many people have more than 1 phone, and with different telecoms. So if I am subscriber to AIS and True, I should count as +1 in subscribers for both of them, although being only 1 person... Not sure how they count TV. I have their fiber+TrueVisions+mobile SIM as a one package. So I guess they'd count all 3 as one subscription. But the other phone number from them is a separate subscription, so they'd count me as 2 subscribers, I guess.

On 1/14/2023 at 8:54 AM, GreasyFingers said:

True as an organisation is hopeless. Maybe Dtac will improve them.

They definitely were some years back. But in the last couple of years I've found them to be quite good. DTAC always had excellent support, so this may improve them further... Overall, compared to 10-20 years ago, seems all telecoms upped their game in support quality, as I doubt I've gotten more patient and forgiving in this time...

On 1/14/2023 at 9:28 AM, Liverpool Lou said:

It'll be a listed company, so anyone can!  Google the companies' shareholders, all the information is public.

Anyone can, sure. But there's several possibilities of who actually will. They could issue shares for existing shareholders and that way account for the imbalance between the two. Or they are doing another public offering to raise money. I'm pointing out there's a lot of basic but important information left out of the article. It raises a lot of questions.

Merger had to happen to allow the two remaining companies to raise their rates to cover the cost of implementing 5G being forced on everyone, whether they want it or not.   5G (and higher) required for the dystopic tech nightmare coming down the pike ... 

Oh yeah. 

That's how we prefer things. 

Controlling corporate/government monopolies. 

3 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

They definitely were some years back. But in the last couple of years I've found them to be quite good. DTAC always had excellent support, so this may improve them further... Overall, compared to 10-20 years ago, seems all telecoms upped their game in support quality, as I doubt I've gotten more patient and forgiving in this time...

10 to 20 years ago all the operators were expanding as fast as they could with 3 and CDMA just being introduced.

Conspiracy posts and the replies have been removed.

 

Off topic posts and the replies have been removed.