After failing to agree on the price and navigate the complexities of the deal, TPG Telecom abruptly ended its bid to sell a variety of fibre and other assets to Vocus. This announcement was not unexpected as TPG recently revealed that ongoing negotiations with Vocus, despite their initially agreed exclusivity period, had failed to produce an agreement.
Although TPG retained hope for the continuation of dialogue and negotiation with Vocus, there was a clear decline in the probable chances for success. The discordance most probably came from their inability to settle on an agreed value for the assets, which are abundant and diverse.
In an official statement addressing the situation, TPG said, “the proposed transaction involved considerable complexity and, ultimately, the parties have been unable to reach alignment on the operating model and commercial terms for TPG to have sufficient confidence that a successful transaction can be agreed and executed.”
Last year, Vocus, bolstered by Macquarie, proposed a non-binding bid valued at A$6.3 billion, or just over US$4 billion, for TPG Telecom’s enterprise, government, and wholesale units, including Vision Network. Established as a distinct entity that provides services mainly in urban areas such as fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), fibre-to-the-building (FTTB), fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), and hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) networks, Vision Network was intended to attract interest from buyers since its inception.
However, TPG Telecom has not completely lost its footing in this matter. While re-assessing its approaches to delivering value for shareholders, TPG also showed its commitment to potentially broker a deal on a lower scale. Considering the continued strong interest from strategic investors and financial partners in the company’s fixed infrastructure assets, TPG said it will look into alternatives for optimising value and proceed to work with Bank of America on its strategic review.
Most likely, the main focus lies on Vision Network. TPG, shortly after launching Vision Network, appointed Bank of America to help with a strategic review of the business and attract potential buyers. Monetising Vision Network is evidently still a major consideration, but TPG’s task of finding an investor willing to meet its price expectation seems to be increasingly challenging.
