TPG Telecom to Sell Assets to Vocus in $3.5 Billion Deal

By Angus Whitley

October 13, 2024 at 5:16PM EDT

A bundle of fiber optic cables runs under the desks inside the control room of the Sberbank PJSC data processing center (DPC) at the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. As Sberbank expands its technology offerings, the Kremlin is backing legislation aimed at keeping the country's largest internet companies under local control by limiting foreign ownership. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- TPG Telecom Ltd. agreed to sell its fiber assets and the company’s fixed business serving enterprise, government and wholesale customers to Vocus Group Ltd. in a deal valued at A$5.25 billion ($3.5 billion).

Vocus will provide fixed network services back to TPG as part of the agreement, TPG said in a statement Monday.

The transaction, due to complete in the second half of 2025, marks the end of TPG’s strategic review of its fiber network infrastructure. The company expects the sale to deliver net cash proceeds of between A$4.65 billion and A$4.75 billion.

The agreement “creates a more focused and streamlined business with significant optionality for the optimization of our capital structure,” TPG Chief Executive Officer Iñaki Berroeta said.

Vocus, which is backed by Macquarie Asset Management and Aware Super, said after the deal it will operate a network of more than 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) of owned or leased fiber.

(Updates with cash proceeds in third paragraph.)