Overnight, the AFR led with the story that Singtel was in advanced discussions to sell Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications group, to Toronto-headquartered private equity giant Brookfield, a major deal worth around $16-18 billion. Singtel have denied the rumours, but often where this is smoke there is a fire. After over two decades of ownership, Singtel will pass the reins over to private equity, which will have to deal with regulators for Australia’s second-largest telco. It will be interesting to see how Brookfield plans to turn around Optus after its recent outage and cyber-attack issues.
