Telecom in trading halt as AAPT sale looms

By Paul McBeth

July 30 (BusinessDesk) – Shares in Telecom Corp. 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 Ltd. 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.

(BusinessDesk)

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