Telecom New Zealand, the country’s incumbent, is looking to sell its Australian wholesale broadband unit AAPT before the end of the year, The Australian reported citing sources with knowledge of the sale process.
Australian ISP TPG Telecom has been…
Telecom New Zealand, the country’s incumbent, is looking to sell its Australian wholesale broadband unit AAPT before the end of the year, The Australian reported citing sources with knowledge of the sale process.
Australian ISP TPG Telecom has been tipped as a potential buyer, as it wants to secure more interstate backhaul and broadband transit links.
TPG had already been linked to a purchase of AAPT in mid-2010. But later that year, Telecom New Zealand decided to only sell the consumer arm of its Australian unit to local ISP iiNet for A$60m (US$58m). IiNet is said not to be interested this time, while it has been suggested that Vodafone Australia could be among the parties taking a look at the asset.
Goldman Sachs is reportedly managing the new AAPT sale process, as it already was three years ago.
Telecom NZ is hoping to generate as much as A$400m (US$386.7m) from the divestment. However, an analyst quoted by the newspaper doubted that the operator would get that price, questioning the value of some of AAPT’s assets.
AAPT claims on its website that its network incorporates more than 11,000 kilometres of fibre and 410 exchanges across Australia.
It was bought in 2001 by Telecom NZ for a reported A$2bn but the company has since experienced several writedowns because of intense competition in the retail consumer market, The Australian noted.
AAPT, Telecom NZ and TPG Telecom were not immediately available for comment.
