Simba Telecom entered an agreement to buy M1 Group’s telecoms business for an enterprise value of SGD1.4 billion ($1.1 billion), a move which would cut the number of large mobile players in the market to three.

In its statement M1’s majority shareholder Keppel explained the deal excluded assets from the operator’s ICT business, which includes data centres and subsea cables.

Keppel stated Simba had “put forward the strongest bid from among interested parties” with the cash offer deemed to be at an attractive valuation. The investment company holds an almost 84 per cent stake and expects to collect around SGD1 billion from the sale.

In its investor presentation on the deal, Simba parent company Tuas said it expected to achieve operational synergies from the acquisition and benefit from convergence of the two players’ fixed and mobile assets.

GSMA Intelligence connection statistics for Q2 2025 place M1 as the third largest operator in the market with 1.7 million connections. Simba is placed fourth with 1.3 million. Singtel and Starhub lead the market by the metric on 4.5 million and 2.4 million respectively.

Keppel asserted the proposed deal would be positive for the communications sector in Singapore, citing benefits for consumers and the industry from “bringing together two agile and innovative companies to create a nimble and competitive digital-first telco that can scale more efficiently”.

It noted the larger business would be in a better position to make investments in the network and future technologies.

Tuas noted the deal was subject to regulatory approval and carve-out of M1’s ICT business. It is aiming for deal completion in the “next few months”.