Norway’s Telenor and Malaysia’s Axiata Group have ended talks about creating a telecoms joint venture with nearly 300 million customers across South Asia and Southeast Asia, Telenor said on Friday.
“Due to some complexities involved in the proposed transaction, the parties have mutually agreed to end the discussions,” Telenor said in a statement.
The deal would have created an entity worth $40 billion including debt, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters in May when the talks were first announced in the largest cross-border merger in Asia, excluding China and Japan.
A deal would have combined the two companies’ South Asian and Southeast Asian operations.
The Norwegian mobile operator was to have owned a 56.5% stake and Axiata the remaining 43.5% with no cash changing hands, the companies had said.
