Australia's Telstra will finalise its US$3 billion investment in Pacific Century CyberWorks this month, according to sources.
Ziggy Switkowski, Telstra's chief executive, will lead a team of executives to Hong Kong to formalise the agreement with CyberWorks in the next three weeks, the source said. 'We will progress and consolidate some of the agreements between us,' he said.
'We have lots of plans for the Asian region.'
Telstra management had already explored ways to participate in the North Asian mobile market - which includes South Korea, Taiwan and Japan - in addition to the company's presence in Southeast Asian countries, the source said.
Cable & Wireless and C&W HKT each hold a 15 per cent stake in MobileOne (M1), Singapore's second-largest mobile operator. Telstra paid US$1.5 billion for a 40 per cent stake in HKT's local and Singapore mobile business in April.
The market has speculated that Cable & Wireless will eventually sell the remaining stake in M1 to the CyberWorks-Telstra joint venture.