Spark (NZ) not enthusiastic perhaps, page-65

Bidders firming up for Vocus New Zealand ahead of end of year sale

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Vocus expects the sale of its NZ business to be finalised by the end of the financial year. Tanya Lake

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by Max Mason
Vocus Group's sale of its New Zealand business has progressed past the first round of initial bids with a range of trade and private equity firms in the running for assets which could be sold for half a billion dollars.
TrustPower and 2degrees have progressed to the next round of the sale process after indicative bids were received by Vocus on February 7. 2degrees, NZ's third largest telecommunications provider, is looking to partner with a private equity firm for help with funding.

It is understood there are also a number of other parties, outside of the telco, its potential PE partners and TrustPower, who have progressed to the next stage of bidding.
2degees is majority owned by Canada-based Trilogy International Partners, whose shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and are down about 44 per cent in the past 12 months.
In order to progress to the second round of the sale process, bidders needed to outline terms and how they planned to finance the transaction.

Simon Moutter, managing director of Spark, NZ's largest telco, downplayed a moved for Vocus' NZ assets to Fairfax Media's Stuff.co.nz.
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Vocus said last week it remains on track to sell the NZ business on or before June 30.
Vocus is understood to be seeking $500 million to $600 million for the business. It earlier told interested parties that its New Zealand unit was a highly profitable standalone business with $NZ342 million ($315 million) revenue in the year to June 30 and $NZ60.9 million in underlying earnings.
In a teaser document sent to potential trade and private equity buyers, Vocus said 61 per cent of its New Zealand sales came from broadband products, while voice (16 per cent) and fibre and ethernet (13 per cent) made up the bulk of the rest.
Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are working on the sale process for Vocus.

Vocus' board has also identified its data centre business as another non-core asset it will look to sell, but the company has not started a formal tender process and is unlikely to until the sale of its New Zealand business. The sale of the data centre business will not formally begin until the 2018-19 financial year.
Last Monday, Vocus announced the resignation of chief executive Geoff Horth following a challenging run for the company which saw multiple earnings downgrades and share price plunge of more than 75 per cent in less than two years.
Mr Horth's exit from Vocus was mutually agreed upon. The board and chief executive had already begun talking about a succession plan, but after a poor reaction to the company's latest downgrade two weeks ago, all parties decided it would be beneficial for Vocus, its staff and investors, to bring Mr Horth's exit forward.
Vocus chief executive of wholesale and international Michael Simmons has been appointed interim chief executive as the board, led by non-executive director and deputy chairman Bob Mansfield, search for a replacement.

In the past three years Vocus has completed a $1.2 billion merger with Amcom, a $3.8 billion merger with M2 Group and finally bought Nextgen for $807 million, but the company has hit a number of roadblocks as it seeks to bring all those businesses together.


Read more: http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/bidders-firming-up-for-vocus-new-zealand-ahead-of-end-of-year-sale-20180302-h0wwvx#ixzz58p2kr2Bm
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