blog You may recall that diversified contract and industrial group Leighton Holdings has been looking to sell its NextGen, Metronode and Infoplex telecommunications and technology businesses for some time. At one stage interested bidders apparently included Telstra, but as it turns out, a somewhat different organisation has bought them. According to a media release issued by the company this morning:
Leighton Holdings Limited announced today that the Company has reached agreement with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’) for the sale of approximately 70% of Leighton’s telecommunications businesses, which includes Nextgen Networks, Metronode and Infoplex.
Leighton Holdings confirms that Mr Peter McGrath will be appointed as the CEO of the combined telecommunications business, subject to the successful completion of the transaction.
“We will remain an Australian headquartered and managed business and, as we work towards separation from Leighton over the coming months, the management team and I will be using this opportunity to ensure the business continues to be flexible, nimble and focused toward our customers,” said Mr McGrath.
The Leighton Telecommunications business manages high speed, carrier grade fibre network services through Nextgen; provides data centre and related value added services through Metronode; and cloud and ICT services through Infoplex.
Ontario Techers’ Pension Plan is one of the largest investment groups currently operating in Canada and, as its name suggests, is responsible for administering pensions for public school teachers of the Canadian province. So Australian telecommunications and IT assets will be helping to fund the retirement plans of Canadian teachers. Isn’t capitalism just weird sometimes? Let’s hope no Australian teachers have put their retirement savings into Canadian-headquartered BlackBerry ;)
Image credit: Hans Thoursie, royalty free