Australia’s richest IT executive – the reclusive David Teoh, with a personal fortune estimated at $615 million – is hot favourite to acquire Telecom NZ’s Australian subsidiary AAPT, with many observers predicting a sale is close.
Teoh’s TPG Telecommunications is believed to have offered $350 million for AAPT, well below the $500 million Telecom has been seeking.
The only other pro-bable bidder, Amcom Telecommunications, would need difficult-to-get financing to complete the deal, according to industry newsletter Communications Day.
The ASX-listed Amcom, based in Perth, is a provider of fibre, digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband and Internet services to mainly business clients. Amcom reported revenue of $53 million for the year to December 31, 2009.
Teoh’s most recent coup was the acquisition of Pipe Networks in March for $373 million, giving it control of a dark fibre network across Australia’s eastern states, as well as Pipe’s Sydney-Guam international cable.
Telecom is believed to have turned down an offer of US$420 million by Pacnet in December 2008. Whatever price it receives will represent a major loss on the $2 billion-plus it is believed to have pumped into AAPT.
Final bids are due on Friday.