Keppel rises 6.1% after M1-Simba deal falls through

[SINGAPORE] Shares of Keppel rose on Friday (May 22) after news of the termination of its proposed divestment of M1’s telco business to Simba Telecom.

As at 9.04 am, the stock climbed 6.1 per cent or S$0.64 to S$11.06 with 932,800 shares changing hands.

By 9.59 am, Keppel shares had settled at S$10.88, still up 4.4 per cent or S$0.46, with 2.7 million shares transacted.

On Friday morning, Simba parent Tuas Ltd and Keppel announced in separate statements that the proposed divestment of Keppel’s telco business, M1, to Tuas had fallen through.

The deal, which was valued at S$1.4 billion, was originally announced in August 2025.

The deal fell through after Keppel failed to obtain relevant approvals from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) by the extended long-stop deadline on Thursday.

This followed IMDA’s ​announcement on Monday that it has halted assessment of the proposed M1-Simba consolidation, after learning that Simba was in possible breach of the Singapore’s Telecommunications Act.

Earlier this week, Keppel shares slid as much as 5 per cent on Monday after IMDA announced the stalled merger, whlie Tuas shares also fell more than 60 per cent.

IMDA said that Simba could have used radio frequency bands it was not assigned to provide mobile services.