Murdoch and Packer 'misled' over One.Tel

By AMY FRIZELL

LONDON - Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer said they had been "profoundly misled" about One.Tel's financial position yesterday as the Australian telecoms group called in administrators.

The two, sons of the media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer, backed the fledgling telecoms company as it built up a big customer base in Australia and overseas with a strong marketing campaign, investing $A900 million ($NZ1.1 billion) in One.Tel.

News Corporation and the Packer family and its Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd between them control 51 per cent of the shares in One.Tel.

"Like all shareholders we are angry," said PBL's chairman James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of News Corp's Australian arm, News Ltd.

"We intend to explore all remedies available to us."

News Corp and PBL said they had been advised that the company was insolvent following due diligence investigations.

The two major shareholders had agreed to underwrite a A$132m rights issue after removing One.Tel's founders Jodee Rich and Bradley Keeling earlier this month after the company revealed it would not meet its financial targets.

These included being cash positive by the end of June.

One.Tel said its overseas subsidiaries were subject to different laws and would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

The company, which has almost 1 million customers in Australia and operations in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt and Hong Kong, will trade as a going concern.

Its British division, which offers discount long-distance phone services, yesterday said it was operating normally and was not in administration.

- INDEPENDENT