No, Were Not Selling Optus, Says Singtel [Video]

Singtel, the Singaporean owner and operator of Optus, has denied reports indicating that the second-largest Australian telco would be sold off.

On Wednesday afternoon, the AFR reported that Singtel was entering into advanced talks to sell the telco giant, which had suffered a data breach the year prior, and a massive 14-hour outage in November. Former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned not long after the outage.

It was tipped by multiple sources that the telco would be bought by Brookfield, a Canadian private equity giant.

The value of the sale was reportedly expected to be between $16 billion and $18 billion, with Brookfield bringing on Canada’s CPP Investment Board as a consortium partner.

However, in a statement made on the Singapore Exchange, Singtel denied the report entirely.

“There is no impending deal to offload Optus for the said sum, as reported. Optus remains an integral and strategic part of the Singtel Group and we are committed to Australia for …