Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 5): The High Court has set Feb 9 to hear the applications from Axiata Group Bhd and its subsidiary Celcom Axiata Bhd to strike out a lawsuit by three Tune Talk Sdn Bhd shareholders, who are seeking to block the inclusion of a stake in Tune Talk in the proposed Celcom-Digi merger.

The three plaintiffs, who collectively own 30.02% in Tune Talk, have applied for Axiata to be prohibited from including its 5.25 million Tune Talk shares representing a 35% stake in the mobile virtual network operator in the proposed merger with Digi.

The 35% stake is held via Celcom Mobile Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of Celcom, which is in turn a wholly-owned unit of Axiata Group.

Meanwhile, Counsel Logan Sabapathy who represents other defendants in the suit — Tune Group Sdn Bhd (which owns 25.14% in Tune Talk), Datuk Lim Kian Onn, Christopher Mark Anthony Lankaster and Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan — told The Edge that the court has also set Feb 9 for hearing of the lawsuit. Also among the defendants are Jason Lo, and Tune Talk itself.

The suit was filed by Padda Gurtaj Singh, East Pacific Capital Pte Ltd and Tune Strategic Investments Ltd.

In the suit, the plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction to stop Celcom from changing the terms on which Celcom provides its network services to Tune Talk.

The proposed Celcom-Digi merger includes the 35% stake Axiata/Celcom has in Tune Talk, but left out the remaining 65% stake in the latter held by other shareholders.
Axiata, Celcom and Celcom Mobile have applied to strike out the lawsuit on Oct 11.

The case will be heard before judicial commissioner Ong Chee Kwan.

Of the plaintiffs, East Pacific Capital has former Credit Suisse banker Dennis Nicholas Melka as its sole shareholder, while Tune Strategic Investments is wholly-owned by its founder, businessman Datuk Mohd Aqliff Shane Abdullah.

Edited ByTan Choe Choe
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