Page 20 - IB FEB 2019

Business

ATH gains cable with Bluesky As one of Fiji’s biggest companies in
terms of revenue (average turnover of
acquisition uS$170million a year over the last 5
years), growing outwards was something
Fiji business expands its Pacific footprint that needed to happen at some point.
“Obviously for us in terms of having a
presence in all these markets, our revenue
across the group now doesn’t just rely
By Dionisia Tabureguci still reference point) and do the transfer.” on Fiji as we are now a more diversified
Last month, ATH announced a financ- operation across the Pacific,” Fong said.
FIJI’S Amalgamated Telecom Holdings ing partnership with ANZ Bank (for “Then in terms of the business costs,
Ltd (ATH) adds two more submarine uS$40million) for this acquisition, which we can get the economies of scale that can
telecommunications cable networks to it said has strengthened its long-held am- help us lower our costs further. When you
its optic fiber telecom cable portfolio with bition to be a significant telecom player in do that, some of it potentially goes back to
the recent buyout linked to Bluesky Com- the Pacific region. the end users through potentially reduced
munications Group. “At the top level, we’re buying two com- pricing in some of the services. Then, we’re
The two cable networks are: the Ameri- panies – that’s American Samoa Telecom also looking at improving our operations
can Samoa Hawaii Cable System (ASHC) and eLandia Technologies, so for us, this across the group like we did in Fiji.
segment that connects Ili’ili in American transaction will add at least three countries “Now that we’ve picked up operations
Samoa and keawalua in Hawaii; and to the markets that we are already in (Fiji, across the Pacific, each of the countries
the Samoa American Samoa Cable, LLC Vanuatu and kiribati). So that means we have their unique talents as well. We can
(SASC), which owns the take some of the things we
ASHC system between are good at and leverage it
Ili’ili, American Samoa and in other markets.
Apia in Samoa. “We can take resources,
Both cable systems are people and learning from
part of the larger sale that the other markets and im-
saw ATH acquiring new prove on ourselves as well,
telecom businesses in Sa- so these are the key things
moa, American Samoa, for us.”
Cook Islands and New The two cable assets from
Zealand via its acquisition this purchase now add on to
of eLandia Technologies the Fiji leg of the Southern
Inc. and American Samoa Cross Cable Network, which
Telecom (AST). is owned and operated by
AST, which trades as Fiji’s international carrier
Bluesky Communications FINTeL, an ATH subsidiary.
in Samoa, American Sa- Also part of the sale is a
moa, Cook Islands and small company in New Zea-
New Zealand, is 100 per land, which Fong said ATH
cent owned by eLandia could potentially build upon.
International Inc, which in “At the moment, it’s a
turn is 98 per cent owned ATH ivan Fong Photo: PiNA very small part of the opera-
by Amper S.A, a Madrid- tion,” said Fong.
headquartered retailer of “What that company does
telecommunications, defence and home- will be in seven markets in the Pacific is it resells mobile phones from one of the
land security services. and that’s the vision we’ve had about big operators and sells recharge to custom-
AST and eLandia Technologies sepa- three or four years ago, when we wanted ers. When it started, it was to resell ser-
rately own and control the two cable sys- to expand. vices to Samoans living in New Zealand.
tems and the two companies will become “So we’re doing it one step at a time “So one of the things we want to do, po-
subsidiaries of ATH once all sale docu- and this is a good progress towards that tentially over the next few years when we
ments are signed and the uS$79 million goal,” Fong said. have increased the number of countries we
deal is finally sealed. earlier attempts by ATH to enter the are present in, we can look at countries like
“We’re working through completion at Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Australia and New Zealand with big Pacific
the moment,” ATH CeO Ivan Fong told markets were unsuccessful but recent communities and instead of just selling to
Islands Business. “The approvals have media reports from Solomon Islands reveal the Samoan communities there, we can
all been received, including that of the that fresh talks have started between the sell to the wider Pacific communities.”
Federal Communications Commission (for Fijian telecom conglomerate and Solo- ATH’s buyout of Bluesky was initially
the American Samoa business, which falls mon’s National Provident Fund (NPF), the agreed upon in 2016 but was delayed
under u.S. jurisdiction). major shareholder in the country’s mobile and complicated when the then Bluesky
“So we’re working with the sellers at service provider Our Telekom, for a pos- Pacific CeO Adolfo Montenegro, who
the moment just to agree on all the ele- sible partial divestment of NPF’s 97% was fired prior to the sale announcement,
ments to completion before we pay the shareholding to ATH. launched a uS$20m lawsuit against
consideration (initial uS$79 million is ATH has outgrown the local market. his employer.

20 Islands Business, February 2019