Australia’s TPG Telecom to sell fibre, fixed assets to Vocus for $3.54 billion

(Reuters) – TPG Telecom will sell some of its non-mobile fibre infrastructure and fixed business assets to Macquarie-backed Vocus Group for A$5.25 billion ($3.54 billion) including debt, the telco said on Monday.

The deal follows closely on the heels of TPG and Vocus resuming talks about the sale of TPG’s non-mobile fibre assets, after halting a similar discussion nearly a year ago.

Australian data services company Vocus Group in August 2023 bid for some of the non-mobile fibre assets of TPG Telecom, one of the country’s largest telecom operators, valuing the assets at about A$6.3 billion ($4.10 billion).

“The deal unlocks the value of our fixed infrastructure assets while strengthening our financial position and creating a more focused and streamlined business with significant optionality for the optimisation of our capital structure,” TPG CEO Iñaki Berroeta said.

TPG expects the deal to deliver net cash proceeds between A$4.65 billion and A$4.75 billion, which the firm intends to use for further management of capital and other investments.

($1 = 1.4848 Australian dollars)