Telecom New Zealand has said it is studying a sale of its Australian wholesale broadband unit AAPT, adding that no decision has been made whether or not to proceed.
New Zealand’s second-largest player confirmed local newspapers reporting yesterday…
Telecom New Zealand has said it is studying a sale of its Australian wholesale broadband unit AAPT, adding that no decision has been made whether or not to proceed.
New Zealand’s second-largest player confirmed local newspapers reporting yesterday that the telco is looking to divest itself of the unit before the end of the year.
Australian ISPÂ TPG Telecom and iiNet, telecoms retailer M2 and operator Vodafone Australia have all been tipped as potential buyers.
As previously reported Goldman Sachs is said to manage the new sale process, as it already did three years ago when Telecom NZ first tried to dispose of AAPT.
In the end only the consumer arm of its Australian unit was sold to local ISP iiNet for A$60m (US$58m).
In a stock exchange notice today, Telecom NZ said it “is refining its business strategy to become a future-oriented, competitive provider of communication, entertainment and IT services delivered over its networks and the cloud”.
It added that the “AAPT considerations are consistent with this strategy”.
Paul Budde, managing director of Australia-based BuddeComm, said it will be “a struggle to find a buyer prepared to pay a good price.”
He added that “a lot of their fibre network is aging but obviously still has significant value”, estimating the company’s value at around A$200m-A$300m. “If they fetch A$400m this time, I am sure they will sell”, Budde told TelecomFinance.
AAPT says 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$2bn but the company has reportedly experienced several writedowns since because of intense competition in the retail consumer market.
