CS Mobile to buy AAPT's stand-alone postpaid mobile customers

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 06:04

IT Industry - Deals

CS Mobile Pty Ltd, a 50:50 Joint Venture between CommodiTel Limited (ASX: CMO) and Sonnet Corporation Limited (ASX: SNN), is to acquire the stand-alone (ie their services are not part of service 'bundles') postpaid mobile customer base of AAPT, whose services are provided on the Vodafone network.

According to CS Mobile, the deal, which has yet to be ratified by the AAPT board, will bring it around 35,000 postpaid mobile customers and revenues of approximately $10 million per annum.

CS Mobile said it had worked with AAPT "to structure a deal that works for the AAPT stand-alone postpaid mobile customers, delivers greater scale to CommodiTel and Sonnet, and allows AAPT to focus on its bundled solutions strategy in the consumer market."

AAPT CEO, Paul Broad said the sale was in line with the organisation's focus on providing bundled services." AAPT's strategy to transition our residential customers to bundled services meant we required a good home for our loyal stand-alone post paid mobile base.

His statement is almost word for word that issued by AAPT's general manager consumer, Paul McFadden, in January 2006 when Commoditel acquired AAPT's 22,000 prepaid customers for an undisclosed amount. McFadden said then: "AAPT's strategy to transition our consumer customers to bundled services means we have been looking for a good home for our loyal pre-paid mobile base."

Commoditel professed itself well pleased with that deal. When it issued a prospectus for a half million dollar rights issue in August 2006 it said: "the AAPT mobile prepaid customer base...has performed above the modelling used for the purchase price calculation..."

Commoditel is in the throes of a friendly takeover of Sonnet and said this was "progressing well with acceptances for more than 73 percent of Sonnet shares (including acceptances from the directors of Sonnet)." If the takeover is successful it will take CommodiTel's combined customer base to exceed 140,000 pre and post paid customers, which it says would make it "the largest Vodafone MVNE in the region."