Australia
Leap Wireless International announced that it is selling its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, OzPhone Pty. Ltd., to an affiliate of AAPT Ltd., Australia’s third-largest telecommunications company, for Australian $25 million (US$16.3 million). OzPhone holds licenses covering 6 million potential customers in numerous regions. The purchase gives AAPT additional CDMA spectrum in Australia. Leap planned to offer a flat rate, unlimited use service in Australia. However, the company said market and regulatory issues in Australia caused Leap to determine selling the licenses would “achieve greater shareholder return.”
Vodafone and the Commonwealth Bank plan to launch Australia’s first mobile phone banking service later this year. Using the short message service capability on GSM handsets to transmit information, the service will let users check balances, transfer funds and display account transaction data. Users will need a phase 2+ phone and a subscriber identity module (SIM) card with a specially developed banking application.
China
China Telecom (Hong Kong) Group Ltd. is selling about 1.3 percent of its shareholding in Cable & Wireless Hong Kong Telecom (HKT). Following the disposal, China Telecom will hold about 10.86 percent of Cable & Wireless HKT’s issued shares and remain its second-largest shareholder after Cable & Wireless plc, which owns about 54 percent. China Telecom first bought into Cable & Wireless HKT two years ago.
Japan
Nissan Motor Co. announced it will sell its stakes in nine cellular phone firms by the end of March 2000. Nissan will sell stakes in three regional Tu-Ka mobile phone firms to DDI Corp., giving DDI a majority stake in the firms. It will sell stakes in six other regional digital Tu-Ka firms to Japan Telecom, a leading shareholder in the companies. Analysts said acquiring Nissan’s stakes would help Japan Telecom set up a nationwide network and compete with NTT DoCoMo, the only Japanese operator with nationwide mobile services, according to a Reuters report. The company said prices had not been set on the sales of its stakes, but it expected to see a profit on its investment of 8.1 billion yen (US$71 million).
