This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 20, 2018 - July 26, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: PUC Bhd, which recently acquired a controlling stake in Axiata Digital Services Sdn Bhd’s (ADS) 11street Malaysia e-commerce platform, has signed additional agreements to further strengthen the partnership.

Two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed yesterday between the subsidiaries of both groups.

The first MoU involved PUC’s RedHot Media Sdn Bhd (RHM) and Axiata Digital Advertising Sdn Bhd (ada), whereby the former will be ada’s agency to handle all traditional media buying and planning services.

Likewise, ada will also be RHM’s agency to provide digital services which include but are not limited to digital buying, programmatic, social media management and other related services.

The second MoU involved PUC’s EPP Solution Sdn Bhd (Presto) and Axiata Digital eCode Sdn Bhd (Boost) which will see a collaboration between the companies’ respective platforms to explore interoperability between the two services, to enable end users to use the service to make payments or transfers to other end users for free.

PUC group managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Cheong Chia Chou said the partnership allows both parties to expedite the services that each platform provides in a more efficient manner.

“We are positive these partnerships will contribute positively to the group’s earnings in the long run,” he told reporters at the MoU signing earlier.

PUC and ADS first inked their maiden partnership back in April when PUC bought into 11street, ADS’ online marketplace.

It had invested RM40 million in Celcom Planet Sdn Bhd (a joint venture between ADS and SK Planet Co Ltd, which owns and operates 11street Malaysia), granting it management control of 11street Malaysia.

Cheong said that further to this, 11street would also deepen its collaboration with Boost to offer products and services to Boost users.

ADS CEO, Mohd Khairil Abdullah, said he hopes and see between 3% and 5% revenue contribution from the 11street-Boost partnership.

“We also hope to continue growing our user base on Boost. It is currently at around 2.7 million users and we believe we can achieve five million by end of this year,” Mohd Khairil told reporters at the signing ceremony.

At Bursa Malaysia, PUC shares closed unchanged at 18.5 sen, with a market capitalisation of RM294.89 million.