Herbert Smith Freehills has acted as international counsel to Malaysian telecoms giant Axiata on a $600 million equity investment in edotco, its telecom infrastructure services unit. The funding came from  Khazanah Nasional Berhad – the Malaysian government’s sovereign wealth fund – and investment firm Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ).

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto represented INCJ while ZICOlaw counseled Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Adnan Sundra & Low served as Malaysian counsel for both Axiata and edotco.

Under the agreement, INCJ will invest $400 million in edotco while $200 million will come from Khazanah. 

Founded in 2012, edotco owns and operates over 25,000 telecoms towers in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

In June, edotco launched a maiden $100 million three-year term loan for refinancing, working capital and capital expenditure purposes. In October 2015, edotco acquired a 75 percent stake in Digicel Group's Myanmar venture for $221 million cash, part of its long-term strategy to create new revenue streams away from the core mobile business, reported Reuters.

The HSF team was led by Mark Robinson and Singapore capital markets partner Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan.