Telecom in trading halt as AAPT sale looms

Shares in Telecom have been put into a halt amid expectations of an announcement on the sale of its Australian unit AAPT.

The shares rose 0.5% to a two-month high $2.00 in trading this morning as rumours of a sale gathered pace in the past day. Shares in iiNet were halted yesterday, and the Australian newspaper reported it will buy the struggling retail unit for A$60 million while Telecom looks to sell the wholesale fibre division into the government’s national broadband programme.

Telecom sought the trading halt “pending the outcome of discussions in relation to a disposal of assets,” group company secretary Craig Mulholland said in a statement.

Exiting AAPT would signal the end of a disastrous foray into Australia that has where it wrote down the value of the asset by some NZ$1.7 billion and has previously failed to find any buyer interest in the business it progressively acquired starting in 2000.

Yesterday, Telecom also announced the sale of a small stake in ASX-listed listed business phone services company Macquarie Telecom for A$9.9 million.

Businesswire.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Printable version

Related News

Telecom NZ starts search for new boss
2degrees complains to regulator over Telecom 'sim-locking' plan
Chorus-free Telecom begins capital structure review
Telecom NZ's A3 credit rating affirmed by Moody's after split, outlook stable
Telecom NZ credit rating cut to A- by S&P on Chorus demerger
Telecom to offer iPhones direct to retail customers for first time this month
Telecom credit rating cut one notch to BBB+ by Fitch on demerger
Telecom shareholders overwhelmingly approve demerger
Telecom demerger vote expected this afternoon
Telecom continues whirlwind of settlements with incorrect broadband meter readings

Get quotes for Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limit (TEL)

NZX Annoucements for TEL