Quaking Quilty questions Singtel Optus $10 billion NBN “black hole”

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 28 November 2008 08:50

IT Industry - Strategy

With many believing Telstra is set to win the National Broadband Network (NBN) tender, come what may, Telstra’s David Quilty is going out on an all-out attack on Singtel Optus, questioning its “$10 billion funding hole” and labelling it a “sub-prime NBN bidder”.

Declaring that “Singtel Optus must come clean on $10 billion funding hole”, Telstra's Public Policy & Communications Group Managing Director, David Quilty is querulously taking an arrow from his quiver and launching it straight into the financials of the Singtel Optus (National Broadband Network) NBN bid.

Given the world’s economic credit meltdown, Quilty is doing his best to quash the hopes of any bidder without access to quality credit, saying that building the NBN is “serious business so Singtel Optus must stop playing games and reveal where the money is coming from for its $15 billion NBN proposal.”

Potentially wondering whether Singtel Optus has taken a dose of cough suppressant, Quilty quibbles that: “Singtel Optus has indicated it will cough up $1 billion to $2 billion for its $15 billion NBN proposal, but two days after revealing its plan, it still has not made any financial disclosures to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).”

Reaching for the rulebook (that some believe Telstra itself is a master of bending to breaking point and beyond), Quilty thunders that “the disclosure rules are clear – if Singtel Optus has made an actual, material commitment of capital to the NBN, then it needs to be disclosed to the ASX.”

Taking the high ground, Quilty is on a quest to qualify the quality and quantity of Telstra’s bid by noting that when it lodged its NBN proposal on Wednesday, “Telstra clearly disclosed its intentions to the ASX, including the fact that it is willing to commit up to $5 billion in capital to the project if the required enablers are put in place.”

Quilty’s quest for his queries to be quenched is clearly not yet quelled, for his comments continue.

Quilty says: “Assuming Singtel Optus is complying with the disclosure rules, the fact that it has not made any such ASX disclosures can only lead to one conclusion - it has not made any financial commitment of its own capital to the NBN project.

“With a bid cost of $15 billion and a maximum government contribution of $4.7 billion, this means there is a $10 billion funding hole in the Singtel Optus proposal.”

Quilty’s un-quemeful and questioning statements continue on page 2.