Vodafone Australia: No Due Diligence From Optus

SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- Singapore Telecommunications's Australian unit, Optus, hasn't conducted due diligence on Vodafone Group's Australian network assets, a spokesman for Vodafone said Thursday.

His comments came after the Australian newspaper said that Optus was in talks to buy Vodafone's Australian infrastructure and had due diligence teams looking at the assets.

"There is no truth to (the) assertion that due diligence teams are in Vodafone doing any investigation into the network assets. That is not happening," the Vodafone spokesman said.

"As far as the sentiments about due diligence and network sell-up, that's not the case," he said.

The unsourced report in the Australian said Optus Chief Executive Paul O'Sullivan wanted to buy Vodafone's network assets to strip cost out of his business and take out a competitor.

The newspaper said the talks cover wider issues, with the pair in the midst of deploying Australia's 3G mobile network at a cost of about A$700 million.

An Optus spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment.

-By Lyndal McFarland, Dow Jones Newswires;

61-2-8235-2957; lyndal.mcfarland@dowjones.com

-Edited by Paul Godby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 9th March 2006