NEW YORK-Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd., Australia’s second largest multiservice telecommunications carrier, sold a wildly successful initial public offering Nov. 17, raising $1.56 billion, double the amount it expected.
Optus operates a Global System for Mobile communications network with 1.6 million customers, or a 30-percent market share. It also has satellite, broadband, local access, inter-city and fiber ring networks.
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and Warburg Dillon Read L.L.C., joint global coordinators for the IPO, said there was “extremely strong bidding,” especially from institutional investors outside the country, during the pre-marketing period. Optus shares trade on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Concurrent with the public stock sale, London-based Cable & Wireless plc gained a 53-percent majority control of Optus by purchasing stock.
According to wire service reports published Nov. 19, US West Inc. is negotiating to sell at least some of the 75 million shares of Optus it now holds, a divestiture move market analysts had expected once the Australian carrier went public.
