In just few hours’ time, Telekom Malaysia (TM) is expected to announce a collaboration with a number of unnamed parties in what the company has described as a “milestone agreement”. While these so-called industry players were not directly named inside the media invite that arrived into our inbox yesterday, it was stated that these parties are actually involved in wireless technologies.
Sparking our curiosity even further, TM has also said that this new collaboration will offer huge benefits not only to the industry but also Malaysian consumers in general. As TM is traditionally more known among consumers for its landlines and wired Internet services, this should be an interesting collaboration.
Since we will only get the official answer later today, we obviously have no clue what this is all about apart from what TM have directly mention in its media invite above. Then again, there might be this one related rumour: TM might has acquired a stake in the wireless broadband Internet provider Packet One Networks or more known as P1 from Green Packet Berhad, P1’s parent company.
This rumour isn’t new, either: two months ago TM’s name suddenly appeared as a rival to DiGi as the two parties interested in acquiring P1. Now that DiGi has rolled out its own 4G LTE network, it seems the road is clear for TM to move ahead with its M&A plans for P1.
Yesterday, both TM and Green Packet’s shares closed on a high, with the penny stock Green Packet being traded furiously upon rumours that it will be sold. Over 1.6 million shares traded hands, making it the second most active counter in the KLSE. What’s telling is in the stock tracker below:
Soon after 3pm, buying interest in Green Packet suddenly surged, even hitting the 60c mark before closing at 52 cents – almost 12% higher than its 46.5 cent opening price. This pattern is usually seen just before a company announces something that will bring a positive impact on the share price: dividends, bonus issues and of course, takeover announcements.
However, speculation on Green Packet has been around for months now, and the stock pattern above is merely a more active revision from previous iterations. The most telling indicator that ties it all together is this: both Green Packet and TM’s stocks are suspended from trading today. To prevent any foul play and stock price manipulation, a company can also request the bourse to suspend trading on its shares for a set period of time, with valid reasons.
So, the question is, why would both TM and Green Packet request for suspension of trade for their stocks for the same day, and for TM to call for a press conference that same day? It must also be noted here that DiGi’s stocks are not suspended from trading today, nor has there been any fishy movements in the stock trackers yesterday.
In any case, let’s see what will eventually turn up later this afternoon, because it sure seems like it’s going to be very interesting.
Pang Tun Yau provided stock market analysis to this article.
