Optus bidding tests patience

The ending of the convoluted C&W Optus game, seen as Australia's biggest corporate play, may end up with Telecom New Zealand owning Hutchison Telecommunications' Orange One mobile network.

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) was reported yesterday to be threatening to ditch its $A17 billion ($20.2 billion) offer for Optus if an agreement was not reached soon. If SingTel walked Vodafone Pacific would be left as the only bidder for all of Optus.

Vodafone has said it would pass on more than one million Optus customers to Hutchison as part of its effort to get Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) approval to buy Optus. Hutchinson would then sell its Orange One mobile network to Telecom.

Reports out of Australia that Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung had said Telecom would not look at Australian mobile operators apart from Optus were incorrect, Telecom said yesterday.

Spokesman Martin Freeth said Telecom would look at all options.

"We have quite a number of opportunities and we are talking to various people about what our options are in terms of developing those."

Asked about a possible Vodafone-Hutchison-Orange scenario, he said: "I wouldn't rule out anything."

Ms Gattung last month said that Telecom's commitment to Australia was "absolute." Rationalisation would take place in Australia and Telecom wanted to be part of that.

Hutchison has said it has no agreements with Telecom.

Telecom is bidding for Optus's mobile network but it is thought that Optus's 52 per cent owner, Cable and Wireless, would prefer a bid for all of the company.

Vodafone is understood to be willing to pay more than the $A4.50 ($5.36) a share SingTel was prepared to pay for Optus, but it needed longer, probably another two weeks, to gain ACCC clearance.

C&W seems content to await the ACCC's decision, but the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday quoted an industry source as saying SingTel would not wait for the ACCC to decide.

"They [Cable & Wireless] can wait for the ACCC but we will not be there," the source said.

Telecom's shares, which gained strongly last week after it was included in Standard & Poor's Australian indices, fell 24c yesterday.

- NZPA