KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): The political upheaval in Myanmar is posing a challenge to Axiata Group Bhd's plan to list its telecommunications infrastructure unit edotco Group Sdn Bhd, according to Axiata president and group chief executive officer Datuk Izzaddin Idris.

edotco operates and manages a regional portfolio of over 42,000 towers across Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines and Laos.

The group’s concern is how the market will react to Myanmar being part of its portfolio, Izzaddin told a press briefing Tuesday.

"We have been advised that as long as we have Myanmar as part of our portfolio, it can be a bit of a challenge if we try to list edotco.

"When a company is listed, we try to make sure we have a good investor base, with good and sustainable valuation," he said.

Having said that, Izzaddin said edotco is in a good position to be able to raise capital to execute its expansion. "I think the bigger issue for me and for the edotco team is Myanmar — how that is addressed if we were to try to seek for listing it in any of the markets. Some markets may take a different view from other more developed markets."

He further said the potential listing of both edotco and Axiata's financial technology firm Boost Holdings Sdn Bhd would depend on market conditions and the entities' state of readiness, and provided no specific timeline for that.

"SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) could be an opportunity for us. And I'll be very open to all of you, we have several proposals around SPAC listing for Boost and edotco," he shared.

“For Boost, we are in no rush because we think the value will be significantly enhanced with the digital bank licence. So this might take a bit of time," he said, referring to the bid Boost has jointly put in for the licence.

"Even if the government decides to announce [the digital banking licence recipients] in March, it will take maybe six to nine months to launch the bank,” he added.