Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) on March 14 is understood to have mandated JPMorgan for the proposed sale of a minority stake in its Australian arm Optus to Toronto-headquartered private equity giant Brookfield, according to sources by The Australian.
This news comes off the heels of news on March 13 that Singtel is supposedly in advanced discussions to fully divest Optus to Brookfield for A$16 billion ($14 billion). However, the group later issues an announcement saying that there is "no impending deal to offload Optus for the said sum".
"Optus remains an integral and strategic part of the Singtel and we are committed to Australia for the long term. Our current focus has been on improving network resilience and conducting a CEO search," says Singtel in its announcement, adding that the group regularly conducts strategic reviews of its portfolio to optimise the value of its assets and businesses and will explore all options to maximise shareholder value.
See more: Singtel denies impending sale of Optus
There have been talks since 2022 that Singtel is interested in an initial public offering (IPO) of Optus but this has yet to materialise.
Meanwhile, as part of its strategic reset announced in 2021 to illuminate more value for shareholders, Singtel has been recycling several of its asset. Most recently, Most recently, the group had partially divested its a stake in its associate Bharti Airtel. It sold 0.8% of its direct stake for $0.95 billion. Before that, it had also sold a 3.3% stake in Airtel for about $2.54 billion.
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As at 10.10am, shares in Singtel are trading 1.2% lower for the day at $2.45.
