AAPT to Sell A$600 Million Worth of Bonds to Fund CDMA Network
--From AOl.-- Cooters
Sydney, July 3 (Bloomberg) -- AAPT Ltd., Australia's fourth ranked telecommunications company, said it would sell A$600 million ($360 million) of bonds to fund the cost of building a wireless network.
Sydney-based AAPT, 81 percent owned by New Zealand's Telecom Corp., said the sale of commercial paper and medium term notes will be handled by Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. The Funds will be used to fund the A$500 million (US$300 million) cost building a code division multiple access (CDMA) network. CDMA can carry more traffic than other digital phone standards.
The company in January flagged a share sale of 30 percent of its mobile phone business to fund the CDMA network's cost. Still, Standard & Poor's Corp. assigned a better-than-expected investment grade rating to AAPT's credit in March, meaning the company could sell bonds at lower rates.
This decision follows the positive Standard & Poor's credit rating,'' said AAPT Chief Financial Officer Tony Rogge.
AAPT also looked at bank financing, an issue of shares, or finance from the CDMA network builder, Lucent Technologies Inc. to fund the network's construction. Telecom New Zealand also looked at merging AAPT with its mobile phone and Internet businesses.
AAPT's CDMA network will cover 10 million people across Australia with the company aiming to have about 900,000 mobile subscribers by 2005. It currently has 580,000 phone, data and Internet customers. Telstra has 75 percent of the A$25 billion Australian telecommunications market.
AAPT rose 9 cents, or 1.6 percent, to A$5.57.
Jul/02/2000 20:08 ET |
