DLA Phillips Fox advises on $53m sale of Silk Telecom to Nextgen

DLA Phillips Fox advised Hong Kong Telecommunications Holdings (Malaysia) Pty Ltd on the sale of 100 percent of the issued share capital in Hong Kong Telecommunications Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, which trades as Silk Telecom, to Nextgen Networks Pty Ltd.

Silk Telecom, a wholesale telco, operates extensive metropolitan and regional fibre access networks in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria.

The deal team was led by Dr Gerry Bean who drafted and negotiated the Share Sale and Purchase Agreement with assistance from Andrew Crean, Nick Diakoumis, Rob Allen, Van Do and James Hutchins. The deal was highly confidential and took some time to finalise, starting with working on the Information Memorandum for the sale.

Silk Telecom started life as Powercor Australia Telecommunication Pty Ltd and acquired Bright Telecom from Western Power.  Silk Telecom was created in 2005 by combining the telecommunications businesses of three power utilities: ETSA (SA) Powercor (Vic) and CitiPower (Melbourne), all partially-owned subsidiaries of Hong Kong based Cheung Kong Group. A key issue was the basis on which Powercor, CitiPower and ETSA would continue to provide services to Silk Telecom (and vice versa) in the future.

"The team rose to the challenge of getting the job done quickly and efficiently.   Our client was particularly pleased with our 'hands on deck' effort." Dr Bean said.

Deacons acted on behalf on Nextgen Networks.

For further information please contact:

Dr Gerry Bean
Partner, DLA Phillips Fox
Direct Tel: +61 3 9274 5661
Email: gerry.bean@dlaphillipsfox.com

Clare Buttner
Media Relations Consultant, DLA Phillips Fox
Direct Tel: +61 2 9286 8400
Email: clare.buttner@dlaphillipsfox.com