Jakarta. XL Axiata, the second-largest telecommunication provider in Indonesia, gained approval from shareholders to acquire Axis Telecom Indonesia, paving the way for the merger of the company.

 

XL will assume a higher debt level by taking out loans to finance the $865 million acquisition, and that includes borrowing $500 million from parent company Axiata Group.

 

Hasnul Suhaimi, president director of XL, told reporters on Wednesday that it had secured all approvals for the acquisition except from the business competition watchdog KPPU.

 

“We hope to gain approval from KPPU by the end of March,” Hasnul said.

 

XL signed the sales and purchase agreement for Axis in September when it agreed to buy the 95 percent ownership of Axis from Teleglobal Investment for $865 million. The amount also included payment of Axis’s liabilities. Teleglobal is controlled by Saudi Telecom Company.

 

After the acquisition, Axis will be merged into XL, and XL will then gain an additional 15 megahertz of 2G spectrum for mobile-phone service.