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The MyRepublic team. Photo credit: MyRepublic.

Internet provider startup MyRepublic plans to go public by end of 2018, CEO Malcolm Rodrigues announced today at a media event in Singapore.

Rodrigues said the company is currently in the process of fundraising, and the “rumors” of MyRepublic making a bid to buy a majority stake in Singapore telco M1 are making things complicated. The M1 buyout Rodrigues referred to was reported by Bloomberg at the end of May. MyRepublic says it will not buy M1 because it’s “not a telco” but an internet platform company.

It’s not yet certain where MyRepublic will list. The firm has considered SGX because it’s headquartered in Singapore, but doesn’t exclude the possibility of Hong Kong or Australia either. With the IPO funds, MyRepublic plans to expand in seven new markets in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

It currently operates in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. The company says it has been cashflow positive in Singapore since mid-2016 and EBITDA positive in Indonesia as of May 2017. It expects to be EBITDA positive by end of 2018 in the rest of its current markets.

It reports an annualized revenue run rate of US$79.6 million.

The company also announced it plans to launch mobile telephony services in Singapore, as a mobile virtual network operator, buying airtime from Singapore’s three telcos, Singtel, Starhub, and M1. It will be the second such provider in Singapore after Circles.Life, which has partnered with M1. It plans to launch the service in October.

MyRepublic campaigned for the bid to be Singapore’s fourth telco last year, but ended up losing to Australia’s TPG Telecom.

Converted from Singapore dollars. US$1 = S$1.38

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