Unveiling the major foreign player backing Vietnam's telecommunications infrastructure company

HANOI, Vietnam, Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As one of Malaysia's leading telecommunications providers, Time dotCom continues to make its mark in the Vietnamese market as a rare foreign network provider with a successful investment deal, investing $12 million USD in 2015 into CMC Telecom - a top provider in the Vietnamese telecommunications technology industry.

Malaysia's Telecommunications Challenger

Incorporated in 1996, TIME dotCom Berhad (Time) is a telecommunications company with the second largest share in the Malaysian fixed line market, with a market capitalization of over $2 billion USD. Time is regarded as a "challenger" in the Malaysian telecommunications industry. Time has established itself as a leading provider of domestic and international network connectivity infrastructure, offering a 100% fiber-optic network and delivering high-speed connections to millions of Malaysians.

Time has also had an impact on the Southeast Asian region by providing international bandwidth via a network of cross-country fiber-optic cables connecting Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. These countries are where Time has strategically established its presence. With its "Gateway to ASEAN" connectivity strategy, Time has further expanded its global presence by collaborating with major players in the international telecommunications industry to develop undersea fiber-optic infrastructure. Time has made significant investments in international undersea cable systems since 2008, including UNITY, FASTER, APG, and AAE-1, enabling seamless connectivity between Asia and the world.

Leveraging its robust connectivity infrastructure through cable laying efforts, Time also has stakes in the data center space through the AIMS Group (AIMS). AIMS currently operates Data Centers (DC) with a total construction power capacity exceeding 35 megawatts in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Cyberjaya (Malaysia), and Bangkok (Thailand). The DC in Kuala Lumpur serves as the location for the Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX). Cloudscene's Data Center Ecosystem Leaderboard ranked AIMS Data Centre, the only Malaysian provider on this leaderboard, among the top 10 DC operators in Asia , hosting various hyperscalers, OTTs, and global tech giants.

In April 2023, Time completed a transaction for a strategic partnership with DigitalBridge Group, one of the world's leading owners and operators of digital infrastructure assets. This transcontinental collaboration will enable AIMS to expand its connections, accelerate the expansion of its DC ecosystem across Asia, and penetrate new markets by offering premium data center solutions.

In addition, Time owns 60% of AVM Cloud Sdn Bhd, a leading provider of cloud computing services in Malaysia and one of the top Vmware service providers in the region. As a regional leader in digital infrastructure solutions, Time shows a strong commitment to delivering comprehensive, cutting-edge solutions.

Time has a specific focus on the ASEAN market through investments, collaborations, and partnerships with leading telecommunications providers and data centers in the region. After becoming an investor in Symphony Communication Public Company Limited in the Thai market, Time continues to affirm its importance in promoting technological development and connectivity in the region, playing a strategic shareholder role in CMC Telecom in Vietnam.

To the rare successful million-dollar deal of a foreign telecom

In 2015, Time officially acquired a 25% stake in CMC Telecom with a total value of $12 million USD. With this deal, the Malaysian telecommunications giant set foot for the first time in the S-shaped land. Furthermore, this was the first time a Vietnamese telecommunications infrastructure company had sold shares to a foreign strategic shareholder.

A representative of Time shared the reasons why Time chose CMC Telecom to invest in the Vietnamese market: "CMC Telecom had an attractive business profile, with significant growth opportunities ahead of it. It was also a privately owned company which allowed for foreign investment. Most importantly, there was good strategic alignment with the founders of CMC Telecom."

At that time, many foreign telecom companies entered the Vietnamese telecom market, including KDDI, Mitsui (Japan), SK Telecom (South Korea), Hutchison Telecom (Hong Kong), and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), but none of them had significant success and had to leave early. However, the strategic alignment between Time and CMC Telecom has proven to be successful.

18 months after partnering with Time, at the end of 2016, CMC Telecom began operating the international undersea fiber optic cable system APG. This fiber optic cable system can provide 54Tb/s bandwidth, delivering internet speeds nearly 20 times faster than the previous AAG submarine cable.

Following the successful implementation of the APG submarine cable, CMC Telecom swiftly embarked on an even more extensive endeavor. In early 2017, with the support of Time, the company initiated the commencement of the Cross Vietnam Cable System (CVCS) project, spanning a total length of over 2,500 km from Lạng Sơn to Tây Ninh, and passing through 19 provinces and cities across the country. The project entailed a significant investment of over 500 billion VND. Notably, CVCS stands as Vietnam's sole cable system directly connecting to Time's Southeast Asian terrestrial cable network (A-Grid), officially integrating Vietnam into the regional network, and linking it with countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Thailand. During the early part of the previous year, when submarine cable disruptions were significant, this cable system also played a crucial role in ensuring uninterrupted communication for Vietnamese businesses.

"Time is actively building and expanding our network connectivity to establish ourselves as the gateway to the ASEAN region, and we remain committed to working closely with CMC Telecom to achieve this objective," said the Time spokesperson.

After receiving support from and collaborating with Time, leveraging their expertise in building international-standard data centers, CMC Telecom has constructed Vietnam's first Uptime Tier III certified data center for both Design and Facility - the Tân Thuận Data Center, which officially started its operations in August 2021. Regarded as the most modern and secure data center in Vietnam, Time continues to establish a Point of Presence (PoP) at this location to connect with the data center ecosystem owned by AIMS.

Like Time's expansion into the Cloud sector, CMC Telecom has positioned itself as the first-choice partner for industry Tech giants like AWS, Google, and Microsoft as they venture into the Vietnamese market. Additionally, CMC Telecom has successfully built the nation's inaugural Multi-Cloud platform. The company has also independently developed the CMC Cloud computing platform, cementing its status as a leading domestic cloud service provider in Vietnam, with a market share exceeding 25% as of mid-2023.

CMC Telecom is referred to as one of the Time group's key partners in Southeast Asia and is highlighted in the first few pages of Time's annual report for 2022. CMC Telecom has a history of consistently growing its revenue. The company's revenue has increased exponentially from 830 billion VND in 2015, at a remarkable growth of over 300%, reaching 2,500 billion VND by the fiscal year 2022, according to the financial statements of CMC Telecom. Over the next five years, the company plans to maintain a growth rate of 25 to 30% per annum.

SOURCE CMC Telecom