Forum Archive Index - July 2000

["Ben Dutton" <bendutton@sharechat.co.nz>]

TEL might be one to keep an eye on today, if this article from the SMH is
anything to go by.

Benjamin Dutton
(Disc. no current position in TEL).


AAPT tender poised to scoop key bank contract
By KEVIN MORRISON

Shares in telecommunications carrier AAPT rose almost 7 per cent yesterday
on speculation that its consortium had won the $100-million-a-year
telecommunications services contract from the Commonwealth Bank.

Brokers said CBA would award the contract today to AAPT and its consortium
partners, Telecom Corp of New Zealand and EDS of the US, rather than Cable &
Wireless Optus, the only other tenderer on the short list.

But neither AAPT, Optus or CBA would confirm this, although they did
indicate that an announcement would be made today.

Shares in AAPT, 81 per cent-owned by Telecom NZ, closed 39c higher at $6.20
with less than 700,000 shares changing hands.

Optus shares also rose strongly, up 13c to $5.33.

Fund managers said AAPT and its partners won the bid largely because of the
link with EDS, which operates all of CBA's IT functions and its Australian
operations are 35 per cent-owned by the bank.

The contract is expected to run for five years, giving it a value of about
$500 million. The contract value could rise with the future inclusion of
Colonial's telecom services following the $9 billion merger of the two
banks.

AAPT will be required to install switches in Telstra's telephone exchanges
nation-wide in order to handle the volume of data and voice traffic that
Commonwealth Bank generates.

Fund managers said Telstra and Optus would also benefit modestly, given that
AAPT would be required to rent capacity from their respective telephone
networks.

Telstra previously provided all the telecom services for CBA but did not
make the short list during the current tender.

However, the contract is not expected to include the bank's mobile phone
services, which are handled by Vodafone Pacific.




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