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AKARTA/LONDON/HONG KONG: Qatar’s Ooredoo QSC denies “media speculation” that it is mulling over a sale of its stakes in an Indonesian business, Indosat Ooredoo.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported Ooredo was exploring options, including a sale of its controlling stake in Indosat as the Qatari phone company seeks to raise cash and focus on its more profitable Middle Eastern markets, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ooredoo could sell its 65 percent stake in Indosat to another phone company willing to expand in the region, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations were private. The holding has a market value of about US$1.4 billion.

No final decision has been made and deliberations are still at a preliminary stage, the people said.

Commenting on this, Ooredoo said: “Ooredoo wishes to confirm it has no intention of selling its interest in the business. Indosat Ooredoo is Ooredoo’s biggest international market and is strategically important to Ooredoo’s corporate strategy given its long term growth prospects.”

Ooredoo, which has operations extending from Algeria to Myanmar, is also considering a sale of its indirect stake in Singapore’s StarHub Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said in July as reported by Bloomberg.

Ooredoo is majority-owned by the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund and other government related entities. Investment funds in many Middle Eastern countries are raising cash through asset sales to combat declining oil prices. — JP