Leighton Holdings to sell majority stake in three telecom assets to Ontario Teacher's for $647 mn

Australian construction giant Leighton Holdings Ltd today said it would sell 70 per cent of its three telecommunications assets to Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan for A$620 million ($647 million).
The sale values the whole business at A$885 million, the Sydney-based company said in a press release.

Leighton is selling 70 per cent in Nextgen Networks, Metronode and Infoplex businesses. Under the sale agreement, Leighton will retain 30 per cent of the business and have 50 per cent of board seats after the deal is completed.

Nextgen is Australia's second-largest long-haul fibre optic network, spanning over 18,000km, connecting capital cities and major regional centres, while Metronode specialises in design and construction of next generation data centres and currently operates six in the country, and Infoplex provides private cloud and managed hosting services.

Leighton had said in September last year that it would divest non-core assets in order to raise capital to reduce debt.

Leighton's telecommunications businesses will remain Australian headquartered and managed with the existing management team remaining largely in place.

''The sale price represents a compelling value creating proposition for Leighton Holdings' shareholders. It has the potential to create further value given that we will retain approximately 30% of the businesses and thereby access to the upside value created by the new ownership structure with Teachers','' said Leighton' CEO, Hamish Tyrwhitt.

Leighton Holdings is the parent company of the Leighton Group, one of the world's leading construction contractors as well as the world's largest contract miner.