Telstra to sell majority stake in Sensis
Telstra will sell a 70 per cent stake in its directories business Sensis to US-based private equity firm Platinum Equity for $454m, the Telco has announced.
The sale posted on the ASX today will see Telstra retain a 30 per cent stake in the business, valued at AU$649m, and continue to profit from the services it provides to Sensis including voice services and directory assistance.
Sensis will go on producing and providing directory assistance services, according to the conditions of Telstra’s Carrier Licence, under the agreement.
In the last 12 months the division has looked to shed hundreds of jobs as it adjusts has attempted to adjust its business model. At its peak in 2005 the business was valued by some at $12bn.
At 2.4x EBITDA someone is going to clean up here…..
In a massive way.
Let’s hope Telstra use some of the $454M to clean up their filthy public phone boxes. They are a disgrace and dot the entire continent. Amazingly these dirty booths all carry the Telstra logo. Not exactly good for the image of one of the nation’s biggest companies.
As a former Sensis employee (2005-2008) I have observed the Sensis journey in recent years with interest.
Telstra have a stututory obligation to produce and publish White Pages directories (online and print) but not Yellow so whether they contract Sensis to continue this work will be interesting.
One of the strengths of Sensis/Telstra is its customer telephone database which if well maintained is a key value proposition compared to other ‘directories’ which for years have scraped listings illegally from Telstra/Sensis directories. Unfortunately Yellow Pages was beset with outdated and incorrect data to ‘bulk’ up the listings. The collaboration with Google and their maps and listings offering was a smart move. Given it is a private equity company can we expect a firesale of Sensis’ less performing offerings or real investment and maybe some hard decisions regarding the future of the traditional paper directory.
This is a product in more pain than newspapers, and thats saying something.
$12 billion down to $650 Million… That is eleven and one third BILLION dollars lost….and still the poor sales staff etc will be getting hammered about missing budgets by a few bucks.