Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), on Oct 25, announced that its cyber security arm Trustwave has divested SecureTrust for a cash consideration of US$80 million ($107.8 million).
SecureTrust is Trustwave’s payment card industry compliance business.
The business was divested to Sysnet Global Solutions, a provider of cyber security and compliance solutions.
The sale comes as part of Singtel’s strategic review of its digital businesses to optimise its resource allocation and reposition these assets for growth.
The strategic review was announced in May 2021.
See: 'Buy' Singtel now and get its core business for free
That said, the financial impact from the transaction, based on the estimated US$80 million net asset value (NAV) of the business sold, including attributable goodwill, is not material to the group.
In addition to the divestment, certain Trustwave assets that complement Singtel’s core telecommunications and system integration business in Asia Pacific will move into Singtel, NCS and Optus.
The integration of the assets will bring about closer alignment with each unit’s core products and services.
According to Singtel, the realignment will put its cyber security business in Asia Pacific as one of the largest with a revenue of over $350 million.
The move will also enable the telco to capture the rapid growth in the market and develop cutting-edge technologies to serve its customers’ evolving cyber security needs.
“This divestment is the first step following an extensive review of the Trustwave business and serves to sharpen its focus and reposition it for growth. With enterprises pivoting fast to hybrid, multi-cloud environments, the cyber threat landscape has changed considerably and the need for a focused set of services centred on managed threat detection and response has grown,” says Yuen Kuan Moon, group CEO of Singtel.
“Trustwave can now better meet those needs by concentrating on its core offerings of managed detection and response, managed security services, and consulting services to help businesses reduce complexity and cyber risk in their environments,” he adds.
Eric Harmon, CEO of Trustwave says the business is “rapidly evolving to meet the needs of our clients, the demands of the market, and to effectively combat new and complex threat actors around the world.”
“These business shifts allow us to focus on and accelerate our momentum as an industry leader in managed detection and response, world-class professional services and data protection. Now, Trustwave has even greater capacity for innovation in critical areas for our growth, meeting the market and our clients where they need us most by expanding our investments in leading-edge tools, smart processes, and world-class cyber security talent,” Harmon adds.
Shares in Singtel closed 2 cents higher or 0.78% up at $2.57 on Oct 22.
Photo: Bloomberg
