Telekom Malaysia Bhd, the largest telecom operator of Malaysia, has picked up 49% stake in Spice Telecom after an unsuccessful attempt earlier to buy into Idea Cellular. Dilip Modi, chairman of Spice Communication's holding company SpiceCorp, said that Telecom Malaysia had bought 49% in Spice Telecom by buying out the stakes of Ashmore Investments and Deutsche Bank. He, however, did not reveal the size of the deal. Ashmore and Deutsche Bank had picked up the strategic stake held by the Singapore-based Distacomm following the latter's decision to exit the market. Spice Telecom, owned by B K Modi, is a regional player and has 1.8 million subscribers. The deal with Spice will provide the India entry strategy for Telekom Malaysia, which tried but was unsuccessful in acquiring a stake in Idea Cellular in the wake of regulatory issues. Last year, Telekom Malaysia, along with Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT), had expressed its intention to pick up a 47.7% stake held by the US telecom major AT&T (now Cingular Wireless) for $390 million.
