WRAPUP 1-Centrica buys UK arm of failed One.Tel
7/3/2001 6:26:00 AM
07-03 0438 WRAPUP 1-Centrica (CNA) buys UK arm of failed One.Tel
By Richard Baum and Michael Smith
LONDON/SYDNEY, July 3 (Reuters) - British gas company Centrica Plc bought the UK arm of One.Tel Ltd (ONE) for 58 million pounds ($82 million) on Tuesday, enough for the failed Australian telecoms group to cover a quarter of its debts.
Centrica, which launched its own fixed-line, mobile and Internet services last September through British Gas Communications, is pioneering one-stop shopping for British household services. It said the acquisition made it the biggest reseller of telecoms services in the UK, with around one million active customers.
One.Tel, backed by Australian media dynasty heirs James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch, is selling its assets to pay debts of about A$600 million ($308 million) after volunteering for administration at the end of May.
The Centrica sale marks the final stages of One.Tel's wind up, with assets still to be sold in Hong Kong and in Australia, where a mobile phone network is under construction by Lucent Technologies Inc (LU) . One.Tel said it was close to a sale in Hong Kong.
The UK business, launched in August 1998, was profitable, with sales of about 100 million pounds in the last 12 months. It is a "virtual" operator without its own network, buying telecoms services wholesale and reselling them to 650,000 customers.
"Today's acquisition is a significant step towards our target of 10 percent of the residential market," said Ian El-Mokadem, managing director of Centrica Telecommunications.
Centrica said One.Tel will continue to trade under its own name and without job losses. The deal gives Centrica control of the One.Tel brand in Europe and in North America.
The purchase price includes One.Tel UK's liabilities.
One.Tel said up to five bidders were interested in taking over its Hong Kong subsidiary.
"We have short-listed the interested parties from more than 20 to just three to five late last week," One.Tel Hong Kong country manager Andy Chow told Reuters. "There are just a few parties left and we are going to get everything finalised in the next one to two weeks."
Industry sources said One.Tel Hong Kong had narrowed down bidders for the business, which has 200,000 customers, to companies from Australia, China and the United States.
Telstra Corp Ltd (TLS) 's Regional Wireless Co, a joint venture with Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd (0008) , has previously been tipped as one of the interested parties.
(Additional reporting by Mike Elliott in London)
REUTERS
Rtr 06:26 07-03-01 Copyright 2001, Reuters News Service |
