(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Apr. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said Friday that its wholly owned fixed broadband subsidiary agreed to merge with No. 2 cable TV operator t-broad in a deal worth 4.7 trillion won (US$4.1 billion), paving the way for the expansion of the telecom firm’s media business.
SK Broadband Inc. and t-broad will be merged at a ratio of 3 to 1, the companies said.
With the merger, SK Telecom will own 74.4 percent of the merged entity, while Taekwang Group, the largest shareholder of t-broad, will hold 16.8 percent, and Mirae Asset Daewoo, a major brokerage house, will invest 400 billion to own an 8 percent stake, according to the SK Broadband and t-broad.
The companies will apply for approval from the country’s corporate watchdog later. The two plan to complete the relevant process by the end of December.
Together with t-broad’s cable TV subscribers and SK Broadband’s Internet Protocol (IP) television users, the merged company is expected to have 8 million TV viewers, taking up 23.8 percent of the country’s pay TV market.
In February, its smaller rival LG Uplus Corp. signed a 800-billion won deal to acquire a 50 percent stake in CJ Hello Co., the nation’s largest cable TV operator.
SK Broadband will remain in third place in the pay TV market after the merger, following market leader KT, which has 30.8 percent of the market, and LG Uplus, once its acquisition deal for CJ Hello is finalized.
SK Telecom had initially planned to acquire a controlling stake in CJ Hello, but the deal fell through due to regulatory hurdles in 2016.
(Yonhap)
