TPG Telecom, Vocus talk DD extension for $6.3b fibre bid
TPG Telecom’s investors will have to wait a little longer to learn the fate of Vocus Group’s $6.3 billion bid to carve out its non-mobile fibre assets, which was revealed by Street Talk on August 1.
TPG Telecom CEO Inaki Berroeta. Louie Douvis
It is understood Vocus Group, whose five-week exclusive due diligence is due to expire on Wednesday, has sought more time to study the books from TPG Telecom and its adviser Bank of America.
The bidder and the target were working on a due diligence extension of three to five weeks on Tuesday evening. Vocus, which is being advised by Macquarie Capital and UBS, was likely to retain its exclusivity.
Things seemed friendly between the two camps, with the size and complexity of the deal understood to be reason for the extension. As Street Talk said before, dealmakers and executives have perfected the art of carving out towers – just ask Telstra, Optus, Spark NZ, Vodafone NZ and TPG who have done the carve outs in the past two years.
But spinning off fibre assets is a new ball game with not much precedent on Australian shores. The closest example, Telstra’s InfraCo fixed divestment was shelved during the reporting season.
TPG Telecom’s investors have had September 6 circled in their calendars. The $6.3 billion bid is significant compared to its $10.4 billion market capitalisation. Its shares have risen 11 per cent since August 1 when Street Talk revealed the deal.
The talks sprang out of a sell-side process for Vision Networks run by Bank of America, which kicked off back in January after beginning marketing as early as November 2022.
The initial asset put up for sale, Vision Network, is TPG’s non-NBN residential wholesale infrastructure broadband business. At $100 million revenue and
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