Singapore Telecommunications has won the battle for control of Australian telecoms carrier Cable & Wireless Optus with a US$8.6bn offer.
The takeover, which was sanctioned by the Australian government almost immediately, will mean SingTel will becomes an Asian telecommunications heavyweight with a market capitalisation of $24.5bn.
Cable & Wireless expects to realise £3.9bn sterling from the sale of its entire stake in C and W Optus following the agreed bid.
Cable & Wireless announced it wanted to offload its Australian arm in November last year as part of a global restructuring to focus on corporate data services. Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile phone company, conceded it had lost the battle for the Australian telecommunications company when it retracted its bid at the weekend.
