Reports said that Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is looking to sell its Australian Optus to Canadian private equity Brookfield in a deal that could value the business for up to A$18 billion.
SingTel has owned both Optus and Brookfield since 2001. Both didn’t respond to Reuter’s email requests for comment.
“There is no impending deal to offload Optus for the said sum, as reported,” SingTel said in a stock exchange filing.
“That said, we regularly conduct strategic reviews of our portfolio to optimize the value of our assets and businesses and will explore all options to maximize shareholder value.”
This comes a week after SingTel said it would sell shares worth $711 million in India’s Bharti Airtel to U.S Investment firm GQG Partners as part of its capital recycle plan as both its earnings and share performance stagnate.
SingTel is the largest telecommunication operator in Southeast Asia and Optus is the second-largest telecommunications group in Australia.