This Month
Five ASX micro-cap stocks fund managers are buying
A miner, a telco and two technology darlings are among the micro-caps stocks fundies have named for 2025.
- Joshua Peach
Soul Patts launches $122m Tuas block trade; Jarden on ticket
Shares were priced at $6.10 per share – a 5 per cent discount to last close.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Opinion
- Superloop Limited
A year of pain for Optus and Telstra means little telcos are winners
Superloop and Aussie Broadband have been taking share in the highly competitive broadband market as their larger rivals restructure and cut jobs.
- Jenny Wiggins
Telstra snaps up Boost Mobile, delivering Paul Keating a $40m payday
The telecommunications giant has acquired the specialist pre-paid mobile phone business for $140 million. The former prime minister owns 29 per cent.
- Jenny Wiggins
Telstra acquires Boost Mobile in $140m deal
Investor sources told this column that Boost Mobile’s acquisition price was just under $140 million, which did not include a meaningful deferred payment.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
November
New Optus boss promises company ‘reset’ after horror two years
The incoming CEO says he will draw on a decade of experience at the national broadband network to focus on customer service amid tight household budgets.
- Jenny Wiggins and Paul Smith
AustralianSuper axes CEO of mobile towers biz
Street Talk understands AustralianSuper has sent Cameron Evans packing three years after he named to the top job.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
October
Australia’s fibre backbone race picks up speed
The Vocus Group’s $5 billion purchase of fibre networks reflects the intensifying competition among companies installing the cables that will handle data for the nation’s digital needs.
- Jenny Wiggins
Ontario Teachers mulls selldown at $1b Kiwi mobile towers; eyes on Spark
New Zealand’s largest telco Spark NZ could sell its remaining 17 per cent stake in its passive mobile towers, sources said.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Former PwC consultants test satellite replacements for copper wires
Satellites orbiting close to Earth will be tested by PwC spin-off Scyne Advisory to see if they can handle mobile phone calls in bad weather.
- Jenny Wiggins
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
AustralianSuper’s new $2.2b bet pours fuel on data centres blaze
Shut the gate, the super giant has completed a rare trifecta in Australian deals. And it is in powered property shells, of all things.
- Anthony Macdonald
Cooper Investors slams Verizon’s Frontier takeover price
The Australian fund manager is the first shareholder to publicly say it plans to vote against the $14 billion deal.
- Matthew Cranston
‘Transformative’: Vocus buys TPG fibre networks for $5.25b
Macquarie Group will pitch more aggressively for data-hungry customers as it expands the Vocus Group’s national fibre network footprint.
- Updated
- Jenny Wiggins
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Macquarie’s private equity job at Vocus hits $5.25b peak
Macquarie is again pushing the boundaries of what it means to be an infrastructure investor in Australia.
- Anthony Macdonald
Young people, Telstra sceptics: How Boost CEO plans to grow telco
The pre-paid telco backed by Peter Adderton and Paul Keating claims to be gaining market share in an industry that CEO Jason Haynes says is riddled with too many choices.
- Jenny Wiggins
September
Optus communications ‘manifestly inadequate’ in 2023 phone outage
Senators want new rules to force telco groups to keep the public updated when phone and internet connections fail.
- Updated
- Jenny Wiggins
- Exclusive
- Superannuation
AusSuper’s mobile towers empire slumps deep into the red
The country’s largest superannuation investor was already at odds with its partner, Singtel-owned Optus, over a delay in rolling out network infrastructure.
- Jenny Wiggins
Telco groups protest state ‘profiteering’ from antennas
Telecommunications companies are pushing NSW to scrap fees for adding antennas and other equipment to mobile towers on Crown land.
- Jenny Wiggins
Telstra Health loses 300 jobs but stays on the block
The telco group is holding off from offloading Telstra Health as chief executive Vicki Brady restructures swathes of the company to boost profits.
- Jenny Wiggins
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Vodafone gets a start in the bush, now to make it work
Vodafone’s never been able to justify going to the bush. It needs at least 100,000 more customers to make its new deal work.
- Anthony Macdonald