Rajah & Tann Myanmar acted in the sale by Ooredoo South East Asia Holdings W.L.L of its interest in Ooredoo Asian Investment Pte Ltd, a company incorporated in Singapore being the holding company of Ooredoo’s mobile operating business in Myanmar.
The telecom sector is a regulated industry and is also a strategic industry for the military government of Myanmar particularly in relation to control of information flow. Due to the political sensitivity and ESG considerations of Ooredoo, the due diligence conducted by Rajah & Tann extended beyond what would typically be carried out in a M&A transaction and included detailed counterparty due diligence on the various potential buyers of the asset.
A key consideration to ensure successful completion was the assessment of the regulatory risk. To ensure there is no unnecessary political influence, relevant regulatory approvals and the decision makers were carefully mapped out to allow parties to plan for strategic dialogues with the various regulators in Myanmar. Finally, due to the foreign exchange restrictions imposed in Myanmar caused by USD shortage, the payment of the consideration was structured to be paid in various stages with security taken in both Myanmar and Singapore, the drafting of which was led by Rajah & Tann.
The deal was led by Partners Chester Toh, Dr Min Thein and Hiroyuki Ota, supported by Senior Associates Khine Khine Zin and Aung Chit Min.
