Telecom in trading halt as AAPT sale looms

Shares in Telecom have been put into a halt amid expectations of an announcement on the sale of its Australian unit AAPT.

The shares rose 0.5 per cent to a two-month high $2.00 in trading this morning as rumours of a sale gathered pace in the past day.

Shares in iiNet Ltd. were halted yesterday, and The Australian newspaper reported it will buy the struggling retail unit for A$60 million while Telecom looks to sell the wholesale fibre division into the government's national broadband programme.

Telecom sought the trading halt "pending the outcome of discussions in relation to a disposal of assets," group company secretary Craig Mulholland said in a statement.

Exiting AAPT would signal the end of a disastrous foray into Australia that has where it wrote down the value of the asset by some NZ$1.7 billion and has previously failed to find any buyer interest in the business it progressively acquired starting in 2000.

Yesterday, Telecom also announced the sale of a small stake in ASX-listed listed business phone services company Macquarie Telecom for A$9.9 million.