XL Axiata to form JV with Indosat Ooredoo

Indonesia’s XL Axiata has revealed it will enter a joint venture with Indosat Ooredoo to provide consultancy services in future network collaboration between the two operators.

The JV, PT One Indonesia Synergy, will be 50-50 owned by the two companies.

In a statement to the Bursa Malaysia, XL parent Axiata Group said it is expected that the joint venture will “provide consultancy services in future network collaboration. The transaction parties are in the process of jointly exploring the possibility of entering into such a collaboration.”

XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo agreed in January to share 4G infrastructure in several cities as a possible first step towards the long-discussed plans to form such a network sharing agreement.

Indonesia’s telecom ministry has also been pressuring the nation’s ten mobile operators to merge or jointly deploy networksto address crowding in the market, although this mainly applies to the smaller mobile operators struggling to compete with Indosat, XL and rival Telkomsel.

The stock market statement adds that the forming of the JV is not expected to have a material impact on the group’s financial results for the current year.