Sir Ralph Robins, Chairman of both Cable & Wireless plc and Cable & Wireless Optus, today confirmed the UK company's commitment to its strategic investment in Cable & Wireless Optus.
His comments followed the recent Cable & Wireless Optus board meeting in Melbourne, and a number of meetings with institutional shareholders and key corporate clients of the company.
"In 1998, Cable & Wireless purchased 52.5% of Optus - moving from a minority stake to majority control of the company. Our view that this was an excellent investment has since been vindicated by the extraordinarily strong development of the company. The growth of the company in the last two years under Chris Anderson and his management team has been nothing short of exceptional - taking the value of our investment from #1.6 billion to #4.4 billion to the end of January 2000.
"On numerous occasions since our initial investment (including at the company's Annual General Meeting in August and in our 1H analysts' presentations in November 1999), we have taken the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the company. I was happy to be able to personally confirm this position in private meetings with the business community and institutional investors in Melbourne last week.
Our interest in Cable & Wireless Optus is determined by the company's ability to deliver strong financial and operational performance. We are particularly interested in its very strong development in the business and data markets - which are a focus for the group as a whole.
Although not our primary global focus, we are also very keen to continue to support development of the other aspects of the Cable & Wireless Optus business, such as the development of the broadband HFC network. I am particularly delighted at the interest shown by others in that network and in Optus' very successful consumer businesses. I am confident that those businesses will continue to demonstrate excellent value for the company."
For more information:
Stephen Wilks
Cable & Wireless Optus
Phone: (02) 9342 7850