AMAYZIN DEAL FOR OPTUS
BUDGET mobile service provider Amaysim Australia is set to leave the share market next year after selling up to Optus in a $250m deal.
The Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus has stuck a deal to buy the remaining Amaysim business just months after the smaller telco sold its energy division.
The company says that Amaysim will continue as a stand-alone brand.
Optus has also announced plans to introduce Gomo — a stand-alone digital-only mobile brand from Singapore — to the Australian market.
The multibrand move comes about seven months after Kelly Bayer Rosmarin took the reins at Optus.
Ms Bayer Rosmarin joined Optus last year as its deputy chief executive and became chief executive on April 1.
Amaysim is Australia’s biggest mobile virtual network operator, meaning it does not own its mobile infrastructure but piggybacks on another network.
Optus was already the group’s wholesale partner, providing that network.
In a statement, Ms Bayer Rosmarin said the deal to buy Amaysim provided “the certainty and backing Amaysim needs to power ahead and accelerate its growth” in the virtual network market.
Assuming Amaysim’s shareholders approve the deal at a meeting likely to be held in January, the group will be delisted, potentially next June.
It expects shareholders will receive distributions of 67c to 73c a share. A 70c return would be a premium of 4.5 per cent on the closing price for Amaysim shares last week.
The deal with Optus follows the sale in August of Amaysim’s Click Energy business to AGL Energy.
Amaysim said it had received “unsolicited expressions of interest” in its remaining mobile business.