KUALA LUMPUR (April 4): Axiata Group Bhd (KL:AXIATA) on Friday announced that the longstop date to complete its Myanmar tower business divestment has been extended to June 30, 2025.

The reason was not disclosed in the exchange filing, though the extension comes following a deadly powerful earthquake last week. The share purchase agreement, signed on April 4 last year with an undisclosed buyer, was initially expected to be completed within 12 months.

No other updates on the disposal were provided in the filing.

Axiata, controlled by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, previously announced the sale of an 87.5% stake in edotco Investments Singapore Pte Ltd — which owns the Myanmar business — for US$150 million (RM713 million).

The stake is held through its 63%-owned subsidiary edotco Group Sdn Bhd. Edotco Myanmar owned more than 2,100 towers representing 6% of edotco’s total portfolio.

The March 28 earthquake of magnitude 7.7, the strongest to hit Myanmar in over a century, has killed more than 3,100 people and injured thousands more. Both Axiata and edotco Group have yet to publicly comment on Myanmar operations since then.

Axiata had been negotiating for an extension of the sale's closing date due to slow regulatory approvals even before the earthquake, according to Kenanga Investment Bank in an April 2 note. The immediate focus was on supporting rescue efforts, the research house said.

“We do not rule out the possibility of a revision in sale valuations with downside bias for Edotco Myanmar, given the current situation,” Kenanga flagged.

Shares of Axiata fell two sen or 1.08% to RM1.83 at the noon break on Friday, giving Malaysia’s biggest wireless carrier by revenue a market capitalisation of RM16.81 billion.