Telstra delays NBN shareholder vote

Stan Beer
Friday, 18 March 2011 09:51

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Telstra has announced that it will delay the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to vote on the agreement to sell its network assets to NBN Co. The EGM was to have taken place on 1 July but has now been delayed to an unspecified date.

After months of haggling, NBN Co and Telstra reached an agreement in June 2010, subject to shareholder approval, for Telstra to sell its network assets to NBN Co for $11 billion.

However, in its announcement today, Telstra indicated that more work needs to be done to get the agreement ready so that it can taken to a vote.

Telstra said, "the NBN negotiations continue to progress well, with all parties working together to agree and document the various detailed arrangements required to implement a transaction of this scale and complexity. A number of matters are yet to be finalised, including some that require Government approval. Work continues to reach final agreement as soon as possible.

"However, there are statutory timeframes required for the necessary Ministerial, ACCC and Telstra Extraordinary General Meeting processes which means there is a minimum timeframe from the time the agreements are finalised to when a shareholder vote can occur. Given this, we have now reached the point where a 1 July meeting is no longer practicable.

"The company is currently looking at options for an alternative meeting date, including taking into account the full year results announcement requirements, and will advise shareholders once it is in a position to set the date of the meeting."