Singapore’s telecom giant Singtel is planning to sell its mobile towers in Australia, media reports said. Singtel’s assets in Australia are estimated to be worth more than A$2 billion in total.
Singtel is Singapore’s largest telco. It has assigned Bank of America for the potential deal, media reports said. The auction for the sale of its mobile towers in Australia is slated for the first half of the year.
Optus, which is Singtel’s wholly-owned subsidiary, owns these assets. It is reported that the deal will include a long-term contract for the subsidiary to continue operating the mobile towers.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Singtel to implement cost-cutting measures. These measures include organisation-wide salary freeze. However, the telco’s operational and supporting staff will be exempted from the salary freeze.
Singtel Group Chief Executive Chua Sock Koong said in an internal memo, “It’s been a worrying start to the year. As we announced our third-quarter results, the Covid-19 threat emerged, disrupting not just lives but in many cases, livelihoods. The business and structural challenges we are already facing will be further aggravated by weak sentiment and economies made more sluggish by the virus threat. During this period, we need to strengthen our financial resilience and take out more costs. Times like these require us to tighten our belts, both as a company and as workers, to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our business. Times like these require us to tighten our belts, both as a company and as workers, to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our business.”