Australia's Tuas plunges 40% after Singapore regulator issues notice to telecom unit

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Australia's Tuas TUA.AX said on Monday Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) had issued a show-cause notice to its unit, Simba Telecom Pte, asking why the regulator should not make certain findings against it.

Here are some details:

• Shares of Tuas fell as much as 40% to A$1.093 by 0025 GMT, their lowest level since late June 2022

• In May, Tuas scrapped its S$1.43 billion ($1.12 billion) deal to buy Keppel's KPLM.SI stake in mobile operator M1 through Simba after the Singaporean regulator halted the transaction, saying Simba may have used radio frequency spectrum that was not assigned to it to provide mobile services

• The show-cause notice, issued on Friday, confirmed that IMDA has not yet concluded whether to take action against Simba

• IMDA has asked Simba to explain its use of the 2340-2360 megahertz (MHz) spectrum band at about 92 sites during intermittent periods between 2023 and 2026 without authorization

• The regulator also asked Simba to respond to its use of the 2100 MHz band through dynamic sharing during intermittent periods in 2022 and 2023 for both 4G and 5G services, when it was authorised to use the spectrum only for 5G

• Simba intends to respond to the notice, which requires a response by November 16

• Citi says its bear-case valuation of A$1.30 per share assumes that Simba loses its mobile licence and is forced to cease operations

• The brokerage said compliance and governance costs are likely to rise and that changes to the company's senior management team may also be required

($1 = 1.2774 Singapore dollars)