AUSTRALIA: SINGAPORE TELECOM EMERGES AS TOP BIDDER TO ACQUIRE AUSTRALIA'S SECOND LARGEST TELECOM PROVIDER CABLE AND WIRELESS OPTUS LTD

Record ID: 559121

  • Title: AUSTRALIA: SINGAPORE TELECOM EMERGES AS TOP BIDDER TO ACQUIRE AUSTRALIA'S SECOND LARGEST TELECOM PROVIDER CABLE AND WIRELESS OPTUS LTD
  • Date: 27th March 2001
  • Summary: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (MARCH 26, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PRESS CONFERENCE BY SINGTEL; MV MEDIA WATCHING (3 SHOTS) 0.20 2. SOUNDBITE (English) LEE HSIEN YANG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER SINGAPORE TELECOM "We see Optus as a growth company and when you are growing your business at a twenty percent annual compounded rate you clearly have needs for more staff,
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8IW66CK59EGF4NH7XKI88OYZ3
  • Story Text: Singapore telecom has emerged as the top bidder in a
    race to acquire Australia's second largest telecom provider
    Cable and Wireless Optus Ltd.

    After weeks of speculation, Singapore Telecom emerged
    as the top bidder in the race for Cable & Wireless Optus.

    Early on Monday (March 26), SingTel confirmed it had
    offered up to A$4.57 per share in cash and scrip for a 52.5
    percent stake in Cable & Wireless Optus. The deal values Optus
    at A$17.2 billion or $US 8.4 billion dollars, about 14.5
    percent higher than the value of Optus on Friday.

    But details of the deal have yet to be hammered out and
    the final price paid for the stake in Optus could be far less
    depending on whether Cable & Wireless takes the maximum cash
    option.

    SingTel became the front-runner in the bid for Optus
    after the UK's Vodafone dropped out of the race on Sunday
    saying the proposed transaction did not meet its return
    criteria.

    At a press conference in Sydney Singtel said it was
    confident Optus would benefit significantly from the deal if
    it went through - and that the need for restructuring would be
    minimal.

    " We see Optus as a growth company and when you are
    growing your business at a 20 percent annual compounded rate
    you clearly have needs for more staff, having said that there
    are some businesses which may shrink in size over time and
    others which may increase in size, and restructuring and
    reorganisation, reorganisation is part and parcel of any
    telecommunications company and I am sure Optus is not
    different from that and there will be times when they will
    need to to restructure but we see overall the trend as one of
    growth", said Lee Hsien Yang, Chief executive of Singapore
    Telecom.

    SingTel's victory in the long and arduous battle for
    Optus, Australia's second largest carrier, was sealed on
    Sunday when rival Vodafone Plc withdrew its conditional
    offer, saying the proposed transaction did not meet its
    return criteria.

    Singtel's outmanoeuvring of Vodafone marks the first
    setback for the world's largest mobile phone company's
    overseas acquisition trail since its hostile takeover of
    German telecom and engineering group Mannesmann last year.

    SingTel has valued its proposal at A$14.9 billion
    (US$7.3 billion) to A$16.0 billion based on the assumption
    that Optus' 52.5 percent owner, Britain's Cable & Wireless Plc
    CW.L>, would accept the maximum cash component of the
    cash-and-scrip option.

    The alternatives are all-scrip or cash, scrip and bonds.


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