Indonesia's PT Telkom is attempting to acquire Pacnet and its extensive subsea cable assets, according to a new report.
An unnamed source close to the deal toldReuters that state-owned operator PT Telkom has already submitted a bid for Pacnet that could value the latter at around $1 billion inclusive of debt.
If the report is accurate, this would be the largest offer PT Telkom has ever made for an acquisition outside of Indonesia.
According to the source, PT Telkom hopes to complete the deal by the end of Q2, although the deadline could be held up because the companies have yet to reach a firm agreement on price.
PT Telkom is neither confirming or denying the deal, but a spokesperson told Reuters that the company plans to continue to invest in fiber assets, and is open to “the possibility for inorganic growth.”
The operator has been attempting to expand outside of its increasingly saturated home market, but an attempt to buy Cambodian incumbent mobile operator CamGSM last year failed to materialize.
Pacnet is headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, and operates around 46,000km of subsea cable infrastructure.
The company has reportedly been considering a sale since late last year, after plans to conduct an IPO stalled due to market volatility.