Report confirms TEL interest in C&W Optus

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Wednesday 13th December 2000

There's been further confirmation of Telecom's (NZSE: TEL)interest in buying the mobile assets from Australian telco Cable & Wireless Optus.

Telecom's potential purchase of the trans-Tasman mobile business has been tipped for months, but, like other would-be investors, it has not commented on any possibility.

However Reuters says it is in possession of an analyst's report which names Telecom, along with Vodafone and Singapore Telecommunications as being interested, and Japan's NTT DoCoMo as being 'potentially interested'.

All four company names have already been mentioned previously in the media and come as no surprise, although there had been speculation that Japan's DoCoMo, which was initially believed to be considering partnering with Telecom, was cooling on the idea.

Reuters says C&W Optus chief financial officer Norman Gillespie has been briefing analysts but the company has not released any details to the market.

C&W Optus has asked for companies with an interest in its assets to lodge a non-binding offer by the end of the year, but has not said when or if it will reveal details of those offers.

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