In a move that has the potential to derail the Federal Government’s $36 billion National Broadband Network timetable, Telstra has been forced to postpone its self-imposed deadline for shareholders to vote on its $11 billion deal with NBN Co.Telstra said that, although negotiations with NBN Co were progressing well, there were statutory timeframes required for the necessary ministerial, ACCC and Telstra extraordinary general meeting processes.
“Given this, we have now reached the point where a July 1 meeting is no longer practicable,” Telstra said. “However the NBN negotiations continue to progress well, with all parties working together to agree and document the various detailed arrangements required to implement a transaction of this scale and complexity.”
Telstra said it still has to finalise a number of matters including some that require government approval. Work was continuing to reach final agreement as soon as possible.
Telstra shareholders were due to vote on July 1 on the $11 billion deal, which will see it transfer its fixed-line monopoly and lease its pits, pipes and exchanges to NBN Co.
Telstra has pushed back a crucial shareholder vote on its $11 billion financial heads of agreement with NBN Co. The deal, which requires shareholder approval, was to be put to a vote in the first half of this year.
If approved, the deal will see Telstra hand over millions of customers to the NBN Co and shut down its ageing copper and cable networks. It should also see a faster rollout of the new network.
Observers believe the shareholder meeting could now be delayed until September or even later.
The delay should not hinder progress in NBN Co’s first-release sites, where construction is almost complete.
