THE purchase of Digicel’s Pacific business which includes Digicel PNG Ltd is an attractive commercial opportunity for Telstra to boost its presence in the region, a company spokesman said.
The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) yesterday announced that it had approved the Australian telecommunications company’s proposal to buy Digicel PNG Ltd and its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
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| Digicel Deal an attractive commercial opportunity for Telstra |
While acknowledging that Telstra was one of the four big telecommunication operators in Australia, ICCC said the proposed acquisition would not lessen competition in any markets because Telstra had very limited presence in PNG.
According to Telstra, it expected to conclude the acquisition in three to six months.
“Until then Telstra is not the owner and operator of Digicel Pacific,” a company spokesman said
When asked if the company would list on the PNG Stock Exchange, the spokesman said: “No. Telstra is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and subject to finalisation of the transaction, Digicel would run as a separate business reporting to Telstra International.
“The current Digicel management team will continue the day to day running of the business. They will report to Telstra international executive Oliver Camplin-Warner and be subject to oversight from a newly formed board of directors for Digicel Pacific Group comprising majority Telstra executives. Australia has deep personal, historical and cultural ties with the Pacific and Telstra, via our international team has been doing business there for decades.
“We will retain the same Digicel brand customers know and love today, with the same team and services they have come to rely on.”
ICCC commissioner and chief executive officer Paulus Ain said an extensive public consultation was conducted before the approval of the acquisition.
“This included the issue of a draft determination to Telstra and all key stakeholders for their comments; and a conference held on the draft determination where all relevant stakeholders were allowed to attend and give oral comments on issues and facts the ICCC assessed in its draft determination,” Ain said.
Ain said the institutions that made strong objections were PNG DataCo, Telikom and PNG Think Tank Group. “All comments and views expressed were deliberated by the ICCC to arrive at this decision.”
The National / Tech Pacific