SingTel to place USD1.56bn worth of infrastructure assets into trust fund

Channel News Asia reports that Singapore’s SingTel plans to offload infrastructure assets worth SGD1.89 billion (USD1.56 billion) into a trust called NetLink Trust, itself a 100% owned subsidiary of SingTel. It is understood the assets in question comprise of ducts and manholes used by OpenNet, the operating firm responsible for laying fibre-optic cables for the city state’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN). The assets also include seven exchange buildings, the news agency said. Further, CityNet Infrastructure Management will act as the trustee-manager for NetLink with SingTel saying the move is being considered in response to a government request that it gradually divests NGNBN-related assets to an independent asset firm by mid-2011 and sell down its stake in the company by 2014.