Telecom nears AAPT target

By Richard Braddell

Telecom is on its way to the 40 to 50 per cent holding it is thought to want in Australian telecom company AAPT after Cable & Wireless Optus agreed to accept the $A5.10 a share offer for its 10.6 per cent stake.

"We no longer require a strategic stake in AAPT, and selling to Telecom gives us the opportunity to exit at a profit," Optus' deputy chief executive, Norman Gillespie, said yesterday.

The stake, for which Optus paid an average $4.85, would take Telecom to 43.38 per cent.

Optus' hostile $A1.5 billion bid for AAPT was blocked by the Competition and Consumer Commission.