Private equity firms including KKR, Carlyle Group and Eutelsat Communications are gearing up for a possible takeover bid for Optus’ satellite assets, according to reports.
Optus’ parent company, Singapore-based communications giant SingTel, sent out information to the bidders on Monday ahead of a first-round deadline of June 14 and is believed to be expecting a bid of more than $2 billion.
It is unclear at the moment whether the bidders are interested in just the satellite assets of Optus or the entire business.
The Industry Super Network has issued a report urging state and federal governments to privatise billions of dollars in assets in order to overcome a $770 billion infrastructure shortfall.
The superannuation funds say it makes little sense for them to invest billions of dollars in offshore infrastructure assets while infrastructure shortfalls exist in Australia, while the idea of asset privatisation might be more palatable if voters knew their superannuation funds were buying the assets.
“The toll a member might pay for using a road will be paid back with interest when they retire,” the report says.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Ian Narev has told a conference in Sydney that the competitive pressure applied by tech giants such as Apple and Google could be as great in some areas as it is from the other big three banks.
“We consider we have got very, very good competitors in the major banks, we have got very good competitors in the next-tier banks,” Narev said.
“We worry every day about all those competitors, but we worry equally about the niche players, many of them well resourced, many of them international. The Apples, the Googles, the Samsungs, the PayPals, the credit card companies, who can pick particular slivers as a result of the application of technology into financial services and compete.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.69% to 15,409.39. The Aussie dollar is down to US96.18 cents.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
