By Richard Braddell
Telecom is on its way to the 40 to 50 per cent holding it is thought to want in Australian telecom company AAPT after Cable & Wireless Optus agreed to accept the $A5.10 a share offer for its 10.6 per cent stake.
"We no longer require a strategic stake
in AAPT, and selling to Telecom gives us the opportunity to exit at a profit," Optus' deputy chief executive, Norman Gillespie, said yesterday.
The stake, for which Optus paid an average $4.85, would take Telecom to 43.38 per cent.
Optus' hostile $A1.5 billion bid for AAPT was blocked by the Competition and Consumer Commission.