Telecom New Zealand sells Yellow Pages Group

location based services

Telecom New Zealand has reached an agreement to sell Telecom’s Yellow Pages Group to a private equity consortium consisting of CCMP Capital and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for NZ$2.24 billion, including YPG receivables retained by Telecom.The total value of NZ$2.24 billion represents NZ$2.165 billion cash settlement plus approximately NZ$75 million of YPG debtors retained by Telecom.It is Telecom’s expectation that the transaction will be completed by the end of April 2007 subject to Overseas Investment Office approval and normal closing conditions. Telecom will then be in a position to outline its capital management plans in relation to the cash sale proceeds at its Third Quarter profit announcement on Thursday 3rd May 2007.It is speculated that Telecom New Zealand is planning to deploy a second cellular network, to complement its current CDMA offering.