Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

iiNet halts trading, AAPT acquisition rumours abound

Speculation ISP iiNet may acquire parts of AAPT have been boosted by a halt in trading request for the ASX today

Speculation about a deal that could see national broadband provider iiNet (ASX:IIN) pick up a chunk of embattled Telecom New Zealand subsidiary AAPT is likely to rapidly intensify this morning with the news iiNet has halted trading of its shares.

iiNet chief executive Michael Malone has so far declined to comment on a possible AAPT deal, but in an announcement to the ASX this morning, iiNet requested a two day trading halt "pending the announcement of a potential acquisition".

iiNet envisages ending its trading halt before Monday morning - before which time it plans to make an announcement about the "proposed acquisition".

The news comes as iiNet's name was linked this morning by the Australian to a possible transaction involving AAPT. Rival broadband specialist TPG has long been named as a potential acquirer of AAPT. Both iiNet and TPG have a strong history of acquiring other ISPs in the Australian market to fuel growth.

"It is believed iiNet has submitted a proposal that could see AAPT's retail and wholesale arms sold as separate entities," the newspaper reported this morning.

Both iiNet and TPG have been extremely active in acquiring other telcos and ISPs over the past few years. In late March iiNet confirmed it would acquire fellow tier two ISP Netspace, in a transaction valued at $40 million and funded entirely through debt.

It had only been two years since iiNet's last major acquisition - fellow Perth-based ISP Westnet.

And TPG hit headlines last year with the buyout of fibre player Pipe Networks, in a deal which gave TPG -- primarily a retail service provider -- a significant wholesale fibre footprint around Australia.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: AAPT, AAPT, APT, iiNet, Netspace, Telecom New Zealand, TPG

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: TPG, iinet, Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), aapt
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • The eGuide to Data Movement and Governance: Helping Business Professionals Stay Up to Speed
    You fail an audit. Or customer information is compromised. Or you are called on the carpet for failing to meet a critical customer SLA. At that point you realise just how important it is to your organisation and to your career. How do you prepare for that moment? More importantly, how do you prevent it from happening in the first place? It is absolutely critical that you understand the possible consequences of a failure to properly monitor, control, and protect the movement of data. Missed opportunities and lost revenue might be the least of your worries. In some cases, poor practices can lead to lawsuits, fines, and even the failure of the business itself. The purpose of this eGuide is to help you grasp the measures that can keep your organisation on track to meet objectives and in line with regulations.
    Learn more »
  • 8 reasons why Citrix NetScaler beats the competition
    Application delivery controllers (ADC) are one of the most critical elements of cloud infrastructures and enterprise data centre architectures. ADCs strongly impact performance, scale and security of the entire application environment, so it is extremely important for IT leaders to choose the right one.
    Learn more »
  • BI Optimisation: Building a Better Business Case for Business Intelligence
    "Business Intelligence helps you make better decisions." This is how the business value of Business Intelligence (BI) is often described. How do you measure the effect of better decisions? How do you determine the quality of a decision to start with? And how can you predict how other decisions might have played out? Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.

HP and IDG news, product videos and resources